Cet ignoble trafic:' The Kidnapping and Sale of Vietnamese Women and Children in French Colonial Indochina, 1873-1935

Author: Lessard, Micheline

Abstract: The trafficking of women and children in Vietnam represents a scourge that is neither recent nor contemporary. During the French colonial period (1858-1954) the colonial administration, French consuls in China, the military and other settlers realized that the kidnappings of Vietnamese women and girls were not only frequent but were also often part well organized criminal networks. Many armed bands crisscrossing the coastal regions and border villages between China and Vietnam captured or abducted Vietnamese women and children in order to sell them in many Chinese markets. These women and children, destined for cohabitation, domestic work or prostitution, sometimes allowed anti-colonial Vietnamese bands to exchange them for weapons. Despite many measures put in place to put an end to this trafficking, the trade in Vietnamese women and children remained constant during the French colonial period and became an embarrassing phenomenon for the colonial authorities.

Keywords: French Colonial Indochina, Vietnamese women, prostitution, human trafficking, sex trafficking