|
|
FATF Statement re AML Strategic Deficiencies:
Date: 16 February 2012
In Vietnam has issued an enforceable Inter-Ministerial Circular in
relation to money laundering. Despite Vietnam’s high-level
political commitment to work with the FATF and APG to address its
strategic AML/CFT deficiencies, the FATF is not yet satisfied that
Vietnam has made sufficient progress in implementing its action
plan, and certain strategic AML/CFT deficiencies remain. Vietnam
should continue to work with the FATF and APG on implementing
its action plan to address these deficiencies, including by: (1)
adequately criminalising money laundering and terrorist financing
(Recommendation 1 and Special Recommendation II); (2)
establishing and implementing adequate procedures to identify
and freeze terrorist assets (Special Recommendation III); (3)
making legal persons subject to criminal liability in line with FATF
Recommendation 2 or demonstrating that there is a constitutional
prohibition to prevent this; (4) improving the overall supervisory
framework (Recommendation 23); (5) improving and broadening
customer due diligence measures and reporting requirements
(Recommendation 5, Recommendation 13, and Special
Recommendation IV); and (6) strengthening international co-
operation (Recommendations 36, 40). The FATF encourages
Vietnam to address its remaining deficiencies and continue the
process of implementing its action plan.
____________________________________________________
Sanctions:
None applicable
____________________________________________________
Offshore Jurisdiction Blacklists:
Information unavailable.
____________________________________________________
US State Department Money Laundering Report - 2011:
Vietnam is not an important regional financial center, but is a site
of significant money laundering activities. Vietnam has a largely
cash-based economy, with both U.S. dollars and gold widely used
as a means of exchange and stored value. The main sources of
illicit funds in Vietnam are public corruption, fraud, gambling,
prostitution, trafficking and counterfeiting of fake goods, and
trafficking in narcotics, women, and children. Remittances from
the proceeds of narcotics trafficking in Canada and the United
States are also a significant source of money laundering, as are
narcotics proceeds from traffickers using Vietnam as a transit
country.
Vietnam’s banking sector is in transition from a state-owned to a
partially-privatized industry. At present, about 55 percent of the
assets of the banking system are held by state-owned commercial
banks that allocate much of the available credit to state-owned
enterprises, many of which are related through interlocking
directorates. Almost all trade and investment receipts and
expenditures are processed by the banking system, but
transactions are not monitored effectively. As a result, the
banking system could be used for money laundering through false
declarations, including phony investment transactions and over-
or under-invoicing exports and imports.
DO FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS ENGAGE IN CURRENCY
TRANSACTIONS RELATED TO INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS
TRAFFICKING THAT INCLUDE SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF US
CURRENCY; CURRENCY DERIVED FROM ILLEGAL SALES IN
THE U.S.; OR THAT OTHERWISE SIGNIFICANTLY AFFECT THE
U.S.: YES
CRIMINALIZATION OF MONEY LAUNDERING:
“All serious crimes” approach or “list” approach to predicate
crimes: All serious crimes
Legal persons covered: criminally: NO civilly: YES
CRIMINALIZATION OF TERRORIST FINANCING:
Ability to freeze terrorist assets without delay: NO
UN lists of designated terrorists or terrorist entities distributed to
financial institutions: YES
(Please refer to the Department of State’s Country Reports on
Terrorism, which can be found here: http://www.state.
gov/s/ct/rls/crt/)
KNOW-YOUR-CUSTOMER RULES:
Covered entities: Banks, non-bank financial institutions, lawyers
and legal consultancy companies; games of chance, casinos or
lotteries; promoters; real estate trading service companies; and
traders in gold, silver and precious stones
Enhanced due diligence procedures for PEPs: Foreign: NO
Domestic: NO
SUSPICIOUS TRANSACTION REPORTING REQUIREMENTS:
Covered entities: Credit institutions, money changers, remittance
agents, insurance, securities dealers, casinos and games of
chance
Number of STRs received and time frame: 290 STRs (2009
through first quarter 2010)
Number of CTRs received and time frame: Not applicable
MONEY LAUNDERING CRIMINAL
PROSECUTIONS/CONVICTIONS:
Prosecutions: Not available
Convictions: None
Assets forfeited: criminally: None civilly: None
RECORDS EXCHANGE MECHANISM:
With U.S.: NO
With other governments/jurisdictions: YES
Vietnam is a member of the Asia/Pacific Group on Money
Laundering (APG), a Financial Action Task Force (FATF)-style
regional body. Its most recent mutual evaluation can be found
here: (http://www.apgml.org/documents/docs/17/Vietnam%20ME1.
pdf
ENFORCEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES AND
COMMENTS:
In October 2010, the Government of Vietnam made a high-level
political commitment to work with the FATF to address its strategic
AML/CFT deficiencies. Vietnam committed to implementing an
action plan that will adequately criminalize money laundering and
terrorist financing, establish adequate procedures to identify and
freeze terrorist assets, improve the AML/CFT supervisory
framework, enhance customer due diligence and reporting, and
strengthen international cooperation. A comprehensive anti-
money laundering law, intended to address significant AML/CFT
deficiencies, has been drafted and is to be submitted to the
legislature by the end of 2011, with the object of enactment by
2012 in accordance with the action plan. Vietnam should also
should complete drafting its anti-terrorism law and adopt it by
2012 and promulgate regulations to fully implement its 2005
Decree on the Prevention and Combating of Money Laundering. It
should also become a party to the UN Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime and the UN Convention against
Corruption.
The amended AML provisions of the Penal Code took effect on
January 1, 2010. Article 251 now defines “money laundering
crime” as an independent offense. Article 250 defines the offense
of harboring (acquiring, concealing, etc.) or consuming property
obtained from the commission of crimes against others. Covered
acts under the article include some forms of money-laundering.
Article 251 does not meet current international standards; among
other weaknesses, the law requires a very high burden of proof
(essentially, a confession) to pursue money laundering
allegations, so prosecutions are non-existent and international
cooperation is extremely difficult. Additionally, legal persons are
not subject to criminal liability under the Penal Code. Vietnam is
not considering a change because of perceived conflicts with
fundamental principles of domestic law.
AML Decree 74 on Preventing and Combating of Money
Laundering (Decree 74) specifies STR obligations, but in practice,
the Anti-Money Laundering Department (AMLD) of the State Bank
of Vietnam (SBV) receives and processes little of the financial
information required by Decree 74. All STRs are received in
paper form; the AMLD lacks an electronic information reporting
system, limiting its ability to collect, store, and analyze financial
transactions. Vietnam should provide the AMLD with such a
system, and give its law enforcement authorities the necessary
resources to investigate and prosecute money laundering, trade
fraud, and financial crimes in Vietnam’s informal economy. Decree
74 regulates customer identification and the collection of
customer details and documents. It does not explicitly require
verification of a customer’s identity, unless the financial institution
becomes “suspicious.” Also, there are no legislative or other
enforceable obligations that address politically exposed person
(PEP) requirements. The concept of “politically exposed persons”
is not well understood and no official document defines it.
There is no known exchange of records pursuant to any inter-
governmental exchange mechanism, despite Vietnam’s 28
bilateral mutual legal assistance treaties. The Ministry of Public
Security (MPS) signed a nonbinding memorandum of
understanding with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) in 2006 to strengthen law enforcement cooperation in
combating transnational drug-related crimes, including money
laundering. MPS claims, however, that it cannot provide such
information due to constraints within the Vietnamese legal system.
Vietnam does not have a comprehensive system for implementing
UNSCR 1267 or 1373 and lacks a system for freezing terrorist
assets in accordance with these resolutions. While Vietnam has
criminalized terrorist financing, it is not criminalized as an
autonomous offense.
____________________________________________________
US State Dept Narcotics Report 2012 (introduction):
Vietnam remains a target for drug trafficking organizations
seeking to establish and expand their international smuggling
routes from production sites in the Golden Triangle (Thailand,
Burma, and Laos). Vietnam’s geographic location and improving,
but still limited drug-enforcement capacities make it an attractive
target for drug-trafficking organizations transshipping illicit
narcotics to the international market place. Vietnam works with
neighboring countries and regional partners to combat drug
trafficking. U.S. cooperation continues to develop with programs
focusing on law enforcement training and health-related issues. In
coming years, Vietnam’s role as a transit country for drugs
trafficked to the U.S. could grow as expanding trade and other
ties draw the two countries closer.
Cultivation and production of illegal drugs in Vietnam remains
minimal, although in 2011 Vietnam identified a number of
domestic synthetic drug labs for the first time. Illegal drug use
remains dominated by intravenous abuse of heroin, with an
accompanying threat of HIV transmission, although use of
“recreational” drugs such as Amphetamine Type Stimulants (ATS)
is growing rapidly among urban youth populations. Vietnam is a
party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention.
For Full report, click here
____________________________________________________
US State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report 2011
(introduction):
(Tier 2 Watch List)
Vietnam is a source and, to a lesser extent, a destination country
for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and
conditions of forced labor. Vietnam is a source country for men
and women who migrate abroad for work through predominantly
state-affiliated and private labor export companies in the
construction, fishing, agriculture, mining, logging, and
manufacturing sectors, primarily in Taiwan, Malaysia, South
Korea, Laos, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan, as well as in
China, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Indonesia, the United
Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Sweden, Trinidad and
Tobago, Costa Rica, Russia, and elsewhere in the Middle East,
and some of these workers subsequently face conditions of
forced labor. Vietnamese women and children subjected to forced
prostitution throughout Asia are often misled by fraudulent labor
opportunities and sold to brothels on the borders of Cambodia,
China, and Laos, with some eventually sent to third countries,
including Thailand and Malaysia. Some Vietnamese women are
forced into prostitution in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and in
Europe.
Vietnam’s labor export companies, most of which are affiliated with
the state, as well as unlicensed middlemen brokers, may charge
workers in excess of the fees allowed by law, sometimes as much
as $10,000, for the opportunity to work abroad. This forces them
to incur some of the highest debts among Asian expatriate
workers, making them highly vulnerable to debt bondage and
forced labor. Upon arrival in destination countries, some workers
find themselves compelled to work in substandard conditions for
little or no pay despite large debts and no credible avenues of
legal recourse. Some of Vietnam’s recruitment companies
reportedly did not allow workers to read their contracts until the
day before they were scheduled to depart the country, after the
workers had already paid significant recruitment fees, often
incurring debt. Some workers even reported signing contracts in
languages they could not read. There also have been
documented cases of recruitment companies being unresponsive
to workers’ requests for assistance in situations of exploitation.
Vietnamese and Chinese organized crime groups are involved in
the forced labor of Vietnamese children on cannabis farms in the
United Kingdom, where they were subject to debts of up to
$32,000. According to a UK government report released during
the year, many of these Vietnamese victims flew with an agent to
Russia, transported via trucks through the Ukraine, Poland, the
Czech Republic, Germany, France, and then to the UK. During
the year, 15 Vietnamese men who were victims of forced labor on
a Taiwan-owned fishing vessel were freed in Costa Rica, and
Vietnamese women in Thailand were reportedly forced to be
surrogate birth mothers for foreigners. There are also reports of
some Vietnamese children trafficked within the country as well as
abroad for forced labor. In both sex trafficking and labor
trafficking, debt bondage, confiscation of identity and travel
documents, and threats of deportation are commonly utilized to
intimidate victims. Some Vietnamese women moving to China,
Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and increasingly to South Korea as
part of internationally brokered marriages are subsequently
subjected to conditions of forced labor (including as domestic
servants), forced prostitution, or both. There are reports of
trafficking of Vietnamese, particularly women and girls, from poor,
rural provinces to urban areas, including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City,
and newly developed urban zones, such as Binh Duong. While
some individuals migrate willingly, they may be subsequently sold
into forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation. Vietnamese
children from rural areas are subjected to commercial sexual
exploitation. Children also are subjected to forced street hawking
and forced begging in the major urban centers of Vietnam, though
some sources report the problem is less severe than in years
past. Some Vietnamese children are victims of forced and bonded
labor in urban family-run house factories and gold mines. There
continued to be evidence of forced labor in drug treatment
centers in which drug offenders, sentenced administratively, are
required to perform low-skilled labor, though this practice is
reportedly declining. While the number of persons sent to such
centers is approximately one-third of what it was three years ago,
there are reports that individuals who failed to meet work quotas
were punished through beatings and other physical abuse.
Vietnam is a destination for child sex tourism with perpetrators
reportedly coming from Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, the
United Kingdom, Australia, Europe, and the United States, though
the problem is not believed to be widespread.
The Government of Vietnam does not fully comply with the
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is
making significant efforts to do so. During the year, the
government passed new anti-trafficking legislation and a new five-
year national action plan on trafficking. Nevertheless, while a
number of structural reforms were carried out during the year,
there remained a lack of tangible progress in the prosecution of
trafficking offenders and protection of trafficking victims during the
reporting period. In March 2011, the government passed an Anti-
Trafficking Statute that provides a comprehensive list of
prohibited acts, including some forms of trafficking not previously
prohibited by other statutes, and also provides for trafficking
prevention efforts. While the government states that most
trafficking acts, including labor trafficking, are already covered
under Vietnam’s Criminal Code, other acts of trafficking require
additional legislation and implementing regulations before Vietnam’
s laws have criminal penalties for all forms of trafficking. The
government did not provide information to substantiate reports
that authorities criminally prosecuted and criminally punished
labor trafficking offenders during the year. Vietnam, therefore, is
placed on Tier 2 Watch List for a second consecutive year.
Vietnam continued to promote increased labor exports as a way of
addressing unemployment and alleviating poverty through foreign
exchange remittances, though further measures are required to
protect the rights of Vietnamese migrant workers and to prevent
new incidents of labor trafficking, such as the implementation of
adequate laws to regulate labor recruitment companies. The
government also did not take steps to increase its efforts to
address the problem of internal trafficking in Vietnam.
For full report click here
____________________________________________________
US State Dept Terrorism Report 2009
The Government of Vietnam, the Ministry of Public Security, and
the Counterterrorism Department, assessed that there is no
general terrorist threat against Vietnam from indigenous groups
and individuals or from abroad. Vietnamese police and security
officials participated in a series of U.S. training programs
sponsored by the State Department, Drug Enforcement
Administration, and the International Law Enforcement Academy
in Bangkok.
____________________________________________________
Links:
Worldwide AML Legislation (International Bar Association)
Date: 16 February 2012
In Vietnam has issued an enforceable Inter-Ministerial Circular in
relation to money laundering. Despite Vietnam’s high-level
political commitment to work with the FATF and APG to address its
strategic AML/CFT deficiencies, the FATF is not yet satisfied that
Vietnam has made sufficient progress in implementing its action
plan, and certain strategic AML/CFT deficiencies remain. Vietnam
should continue to work with the FATF and APG on implementing
its action plan to address these deficiencies, including by: (1)
adequately criminalising money laundering and terrorist financing
(Recommendation 1 and Special Recommendation II); (2)
establishing and implementing adequate procedures to identify
and freeze terrorist assets (Special Recommendation III); (3)
making legal persons subject to criminal liability in line with FATF
Recommendation 2 or demonstrating that there is a constitutional
prohibition to prevent this; (4) improving the overall supervisory
framework (Recommendation 23); (5) improving and broadening
customer due diligence measures and reporting requirements
(Recommendation 5, Recommendation 13, and Special
Recommendation IV); and (6) strengthening international co-
operation (Recommendations 36, 40). The FATF encourages
Vietnam to address its remaining deficiencies and continue the
process of implementing its action plan.
____________________________________________________
Sanctions:
None applicable
____________________________________________________
Offshore Jurisdiction Blacklists:
Information unavailable.
____________________________________________________
US State Department Money Laundering Report - 2011:
Vietnam is not an important regional financial center, but is a site
of significant money laundering activities. Vietnam has a largely
cash-based economy, with both U.S. dollars and gold widely used
as a means of exchange and stored value. The main sources of
illicit funds in Vietnam are public corruption, fraud, gambling,
prostitution, trafficking and counterfeiting of fake goods, and
trafficking in narcotics, women, and children. Remittances from
the proceeds of narcotics trafficking in Canada and the United
States are also a significant source of money laundering, as are
narcotics proceeds from traffickers using Vietnam as a transit
country.
Vietnam’s banking sector is in transition from a state-owned to a
partially-privatized industry. At present, about 55 percent of the
assets of the banking system are held by state-owned commercial
banks that allocate much of the available credit to state-owned
enterprises, many of which are related through interlocking
directorates. Almost all trade and investment receipts and
expenditures are processed by the banking system, but
transactions are not monitored effectively. As a result, the
banking system could be used for money laundering through false
declarations, including phony investment transactions and over-
or under-invoicing exports and imports.
DO FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS ENGAGE IN CURRENCY
TRANSACTIONS RELATED TO INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS
TRAFFICKING THAT INCLUDE SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF US
CURRENCY; CURRENCY DERIVED FROM ILLEGAL SALES IN
THE U.S.; OR THAT OTHERWISE SIGNIFICANTLY AFFECT THE
U.S.: YES
CRIMINALIZATION OF MONEY LAUNDERING:
“All serious crimes” approach or “list” approach to predicate
crimes: All serious crimes
Legal persons covered: criminally: NO civilly: YES
CRIMINALIZATION OF TERRORIST FINANCING:
Ability to freeze terrorist assets without delay: NO
UN lists of designated terrorists or terrorist entities distributed to
financial institutions: YES
(Please refer to the Department of State’s Country Reports on
Terrorism, which can be found here: http://www.state.
gov/s/ct/rls/crt/)
KNOW-YOUR-CUSTOMER RULES:
Covered entities: Banks, non-bank financial institutions, lawyers
and legal consultancy companies; games of chance, casinos or
lotteries; promoters; real estate trading service companies; and
traders in gold, silver and precious stones
Enhanced due diligence procedures for PEPs: Foreign: NO
Domestic: NO
SUSPICIOUS TRANSACTION REPORTING REQUIREMENTS:
Covered entities: Credit institutions, money changers, remittance
agents, insurance, securities dealers, casinos and games of
chance
Number of STRs received and time frame: 290 STRs (2009
through first quarter 2010)
Number of CTRs received and time frame: Not applicable
MONEY LAUNDERING CRIMINAL
PROSECUTIONS/CONVICTIONS:
Prosecutions: Not available
Convictions: None
Assets forfeited: criminally: None civilly: None
RECORDS EXCHANGE MECHANISM:
With U.S.: NO
With other governments/jurisdictions: YES
Vietnam is a member of the Asia/Pacific Group on Money
Laundering (APG), a Financial Action Task Force (FATF)-style
regional body. Its most recent mutual evaluation can be found
here: (http://www.apgml.org/documents/docs/17/Vietnam%20ME1.
ENFORCEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES AND
COMMENTS:
In October 2010, the Government of Vietnam made a high-level
political commitment to work with the FATF to address its strategic
AML/CFT deficiencies. Vietnam committed to implementing an
action plan that will adequately criminalize money laundering and
terrorist financing, establish adequate procedures to identify and
freeze terrorist assets, improve the AML/CFT supervisory
framework, enhance customer due diligence and reporting, and
strengthen international cooperation. A comprehensive anti-
money laundering law, intended to address significant AML/CFT
deficiencies, has been drafted and is to be submitted to the
legislature by the end of 2011, with the object of enactment by
2012 in accordance with the action plan. Vietnam should also
should complete drafting its anti-terrorism law and adopt it by
2012 and promulgate regulations to fully implement its 2005
Decree on the Prevention and Combating of Money Laundering. It
should also become a party to the UN Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime and the UN Convention against
Corruption.
The amended AML provisions of the Penal Code took effect on
January 1, 2010. Article 251 now defines “money laundering
crime” as an independent offense. Article 250 defines the offense
of harboring (acquiring, concealing, etc.) or consuming property
obtained from the commission of crimes against others. Covered
acts under the article include some forms of money-laundering.
Article 251 does not meet current international standards; among
other weaknesses, the law requires a very high burden of proof
(essentially, a confession) to pursue money laundering
allegations, so prosecutions are non-existent and international
cooperation is extremely difficult. Additionally, legal persons are
not subject to criminal liability under the Penal Code. Vietnam is
not considering a change because of perceived conflicts with
fundamental principles of domestic law.
AML Decree 74 on Preventing and Combating of Money
Laundering (Decree 74) specifies STR obligations, but in practice,
the Anti-Money Laundering Department (AMLD) of the State Bank
of Vietnam (SBV) receives and processes little of the financial
information required by Decree 74. All STRs are received in
paper form; the AMLD lacks an electronic information reporting
system, limiting its ability to collect, store, and analyze financial
transactions. Vietnam should provide the AMLD with such a
system, and give its law enforcement authorities the necessary
resources to investigate and prosecute money laundering, trade
fraud, and financial crimes in Vietnam’s informal economy. Decree
74 regulates customer identification and the collection of
customer details and documents. It does not explicitly require
verification of a customer’s identity, unless the financial institution
becomes “suspicious.” Also, there are no legislative or other
enforceable obligations that address politically exposed person
(PEP) requirements. The concept of “politically exposed persons”
is not well understood and no official document defines it.
There is no known exchange of records pursuant to any inter-
governmental exchange mechanism, despite Vietnam’s 28
bilateral mutual legal assistance treaties. The Ministry of Public
Security (MPS) signed a nonbinding memorandum of
understanding with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) in 2006 to strengthen law enforcement cooperation in
combating transnational drug-related crimes, including money
laundering. MPS claims, however, that it cannot provide such
information due to constraints within the Vietnamese legal system.
Vietnam does not have a comprehensive system for implementing
UNSCR 1267 or 1373 and lacks a system for freezing terrorist
assets in accordance with these resolutions. While Vietnam has
criminalized terrorist financing, it is not criminalized as an
autonomous offense.
____________________________________________________
US State Dept Narcotics Report 2012 (introduction):
Vietnam remains a target for drug trafficking organizations
seeking to establish and expand their international smuggling
routes from production sites in the Golden Triangle (Thailand,
Burma, and Laos). Vietnam’s geographic location and improving,
but still limited drug-enforcement capacities make it an attractive
target for drug-trafficking organizations transshipping illicit
narcotics to the international market place. Vietnam works with
neighboring countries and regional partners to combat drug
trafficking. U.S. cooperation continues to develop with programs
focusing on law enforcement training and health-related issues. In
coming years, Vietnam’s role as a transit country for drugs
trafficked to the U.S. could grow as expanding trade and other
ties draw the two countries closer.
Cultivation and production of illegal drugs in Vietnam remains
minimal, although in 2011 Vietnam identified a number of
domestic synthetic drug labs for the first time. Illegal drug use
remains dominated by intravenous abuse of heroin, with an
accompanying threat of HIV transmission, although use of
“recreational” drugs such as Amphetamine Type Stimulants (ATS)
is growing rapidly among urban youth populations. Vietnam is a
party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention.
For Full report, click here
____________________________________________________
US State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report 2011
(introduction):
(Tier 2 Watch List)
Vietnam is a source and, to a lesser extent, a destination country
for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and
conditions of forced labor. Vietnam is a source country for men
and women who migrate abroad for work through predominantly
state-affiliated and private labor export companies in the
construction, fishing, agriculture, mining, logging, and
manufacturing sectors, primarily in Taiwan, Malaysia, South
Korea, Laos, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan, as well as in
China, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Indonesia, the United
Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Sweden, Trinidad and
Tobago, Costa Rica, Russia, and elsewhere in the Middle East,
and some of these workers subsequently face conditions of
forced labor. Vietnamese women and children subjected to forced
prostitution throughout Asia are often misled by fraudulent labor
opportunities and sold to brothels on the borders of Cambodia,
China, and Laos, with some eventually sent to third countries,
including Thailand and Malaysia. Some Vietnamese women are
forced into prostitution in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and in
Europe.
Vietnam’s labor export companies, most of which are affiliated with
the state, as well as unlicensed middlemen brokers, may charge
workers in excess of the fees allowed by law, sometimes as much
as $10,000, for the opportunity to work abroad. This forces them
to incur some of the highest debts among Asian expatriate
workers, making them highly vulnerable to debt bondage and
forced labor. Upon arrival in destination countries, some workers
find themselves compelled to work in substandard conditions for
little or no pay despite large debts and no credible avenues of
legal recourse. Some of Vietnam’s recruitment companies
reportedly did not allow workers to read their contracts until the
day before they were scheduled to depart the country, after the
workers had already paid significant recruitment fees, often
incurring debt. Some workers even reported signing contracts in
languages they could not read. There also have been
documented cases of recruitment companies being unresponsive
to workers’ requests for assistance in situations of exploitation.
Vietnamese and Chinese organized crime groups are involved in
the forced labor of Vietnamese children on cannabis farms in the
United Kingdom, where they were subject to debts of up to
$32,000. According to a UK government report released during
the year, many of these Vietnamese victims flew with an agent to
Russia, transported via trucks through the Ukraine, Poland, the
Czech Republic, Germany, France, and then to the UK. During
the year, 15 Vietnamese men who were victims of forced labor on
a Taiwan-owned fishing vessel were freed in Costa Rica, and
Vietnamese women in Thailand were reportedly forced to be
surrogate birth mothers for foreigners. There are also reports of
some Vietnamese children trafficked within the country as well as
abroad for forced labor. In both sex trafficking and labor
trafficking, debt bondage, confiscation of identity and travel
documents, and threats of deportation are commonly utilized to
intimidate victims. Some Vietnamese women moving to China,
Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and increasingly to South Korea as
part of internationally brokered marriages are subsequently
subjected to conditions of forced labor (including as domestic
servants), forced prostitution, or both. There are reports of
trafficking of Vietnamese, particularly women and girls, from poor,
rural provinces to urban areas, including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City,
and newly developed urban zones, such as Binh Duong. While
some individuals migrate willingly, they may be subsequently sold
into forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation. Vietnamese
children from rural areas are subjected to commercial sexual
exploitation. Children also are subjected to forced street hawking
and forced begging in the major urban centers of Vietnam, though
some sources report the problem is less severe than in years
past. Some Vietnamese children are victims of forced and bonded
labor in urban family-run house factories and gold mines. There
continued to be evidence of forced labor in drug treatment
centers in which drug offenders, sentenced administratively, are
required to perform low-skilled labor, though this practice is
reportedly declining. While the number of persons sent to such
centers is approximately one-third of what it was three years ago,
there are reports that individuals who failed to meet work quotas
were punished through beatings and other physical abuse.
Vietnam is a destination for child sex tourism with perpetrators
reportedly coming from Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, the
United Kingdom, Australia, Europe, and the United States, though
the problem is not believed to be widespread.
The Government of Vietnam does not fully comply with the
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is
making significant efforts to do so. During the year, the
government passed new anti-trafficking legislation and a new five-
year national action plan on trafficking. Nevertheless, while a
number of structural reforms were carried out during the year,
there remained a lack of tangible progress in the prosecution of
trafficking offenders and protection of trafficking victims during the
reporting period. In March 2011, the government passed an Anti-
Trafficking Statute that provides a comprehensive list of
prohibited acts, including some forms of trafficking not previously
prohibited by other statutes, and also provides for trafficking
prevention efforts. While the government states that most
trafficking acts, including labor trafficking, are already covered
under Vietnam’s Criminal Code, other acts of trafficking require
additional legislation and implementing regulations before Vietnam’
s laws have criminal penalties for all forms of trafficking. The
government did not provide information to substantiate reports
that authorities criminally prosecuted and criminally punished
labor trafficking offenders during the year. Vietnam, therefore, is
placed on Tier 2 Watch List for a second consecutive year.
Vietnam continued to promote increased labor exports as a way of
addressing unemployment and alleviating poverty through foreign
exchange remittances, though further measures are required to
protect the rights of Vietnamese migrant workers and to prevent
new incidents of labor trafficking, such as the implementation of
adequate laws to regulate labor recruitment companies. The
government also did not take steps to increase its efforts to
address the problem of internal trafficking in Vietnam.
For full report click here
____________________________________________________
US State Dept Terrorism Report 2009
The Government of Vietnam, the Ministry of Public Security, and
the Counterterrorism Department, assessed that there is no
general terrorist threat against Vietnam from indigenous groups
and individuals or from abroad. Vietnamese police and security
officials participated in a series of U.S. training programs
sponsored by the State Department, Drug Enforcement
Administration, and the International Law Enforcement Academy
in Bangkok.
____________________________________________________
Links:
Worldwide AML Legislation (International Bar Association)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
| Further Tables |
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
*Please note that FATF deems that a country has significant aml deficiencies if
any of the 'Core' Recommendations, R1, R5, R10, R13, SRII, or SRIV are rated
either Partially of Non-Compliant. These are marked in red.
For FATF to remove a country from the regular follow-up process, it has to be rated
Compliant or Largely Compliant in the above mentioned Core Recommendations
and the following Key Recommendations: -
R3, R4, R23, R26, R35, R36, R40, SRI, SRIII, SRV
Please also note that any risk assessment should take into consideration all
follow-up reports.
any of the 'Core' Recommendations, R1, R5, R10, R13, SRII, or SRIV are rated
either Partially of Non-Compliant. These are marked in red.
For FATF to remove a country from the regular follow-up process, it has to be rated
Compliant or Largely Compliant in the above mentioned Core Recommendations
and the following Key Recommendations: -
R3, R4, R23, R26, R35, R36, R40, SRI, SRIII, SRV
Please also note that any risk assessment should take into consideration all
follow-up reports.
| VIETNAM |
| KnowYourCountry |
|
|
| Last Updated: 16 April 2012 |