WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

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LE BACH D. –D. BÉLANGER –KHUAT T. H.
found their daughter. For example, a woman searched two years for
her daughter by asking everybody she met and never found her. She
explained:
“I heard that we can ask someone to go to China to find
our relatives [the trafficked]. But it will cost millions. I am
poor so I cannot do so. So I simply asked people if they
saw my daughter. I am also waiting for her letter” (Mother
of a trafficked woman).
The situation was better when the trafficked women found ways
to send letters home, which provided clues for their relatives to find
them.
For women who migrated to China voluntarily to get married, returning
home is sometimes a matter of choice. The study data show
that about 9.6 percent of them simply visited their homes in Vietnam
and then decided to stay, leaving their Chinese husband behind. They
often took their children with them. A few returned to Vietnam after
the death of their Chinese husbands. Some even returned home with
their husband’s consent.
The above information ultimately highlights the effectiveness of
informal network and individual efforts made by the trafficked women
and their relatives. It shows the ineffectiveness of state intervention in
rescuing efforts, and the lack of cross-border cooperation between
China and Vietnam. Of all the returnees, only 5.3 percent returned
with the help from police. A story told by one respondent shows how
difficult the situation may be:
“Yes, I still remember the first day Chinese police arrested
me.... Other sisters who were arrested several times said:
Don’t be afraid. They [the police] will release you after
three days. Our employers will come, pay some money,
and get us out.”
In one case, a woman returned to Vietnam due to (Chinese) state
enforcement on abortion. She had two children with her Chinese
husband. Because when she was pregnant with her third child, local
authorities wanted to force her to have an abortion:
“My husbands already agreed with the abortion but I did
not agree. I was pregnant so I wanted to give birth and to
raise my child. But the police forced me to go for abortion.
Because I refused, the police was going to arrest me. So I
escaped through hills and mountains, leaving everything
behind” (Returnee).