Like us on Facebook and scroll down to share your comment At a conference on child sex tourism in the Mekong countries held in HCMC on October 30, Lieutenant General Phan Van Vinh, director of the Ministry of Public Security's Police Department said the number of child sex crimes in the region had increased over the past several years. Vinh said tourism in Vietnam is increasing, with nearly 30 million tourists traveling in Vietnam each year, of which 6 million are foreigners.
By the end of September, tourism arrivals had increased 8 percent over the same period last year, he said. However, Vinh said the police have not detected many cases of child sex tourism so far.
Colonel Ho Sy Tien, director of the Criminal Police Department, admitted that it is difficult to investigate these crimes because the victims are too young to have exact and detailed reports or too frightened and refuse to cooperate with the police. Tien said the victims are mostly poor children and street children living near tourism destinations or those migrating from other regions.
Legal loopholes Experts said Vietnam's legal system is not strong enough to protect children, especially males, from sexual crimes. In a recent investigative report, Tuoi Tre Youth newspaper tracked down a male child prostitution ring through an online male homosexual forum.
The group's customers were male homosexuals. The paper said in a follow-up story that for the crime of child rape, the criminal will face years in jail, life imprisonment or the death sentence if the victim is a girl.
