WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

TRANSNATIONAL MIGRATION, MARRIAGE AND TRAFFICKING…
give him a birth certificate here. In ten years, I have not
been able to obtain a birth certificate for my son so he
went to school only with his hospital birth certificate…
Finally, cadres of Vietnamese Women's Union told me to
report that I had my son with a Vietnamese man without
marriage license to have the official certificate… But it was
not easy. It actually costs me some money to do it” (Returnee).
In any event, without instructions from the higher level, local police
simply refuse to register the returnees and their children as local
residents. This obviously creates discontent from the community:
“As far as I know, even foreigners can apply for Vietnamese
citizenship. So why can’t they? They are Vietnamese.
They are simply women who were cheated and now return.
But they are not allowed to have household registration.
The police should have instructions of how to register
them. They cannot simply say no. It’s irresponsible…
We cannot abandon our citizens like this” (FGD, Ha
Long).
Without household registration, some cannot even stay in their
home:
“When she [the returnee] knew that there was an unused
kindergarten nearby, she wrote a request letter to the subdistrict
People’s Committee seeking permission to stay
there. It took a very long time to get the approval, but she
cannot stay there for free. She pays 150,000 dong (about
9.4 US$) a month” (Relative of a returnee).
Lacking household registration, their civil rights as citizens are denied
and they can fall victims of the local police misconduct. For
example, a trafficked woman went back to her community, but
“Whenever she ‘sneaked’ back, police often came and
threatened her. She was even taken to the police station
once and abused. This made her decide to go back [to
China]” (Relative of a trafficked woman).
The returnees generally admit to have committed illegal acts since
they crossed the border without legal permission. Often, they are even
denied repatriation from the Vietnamese side because they are wrongly
considered as criminals. Others reported that trafficked women from
Vietnam were sometimes rounded up by Chinese authorities and sent
back to Vietnam (at different illegal entry points along the border) or
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