VIETNAM (Tier 2 Watch List)
Vietnam is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically conditions of forced prostitution and 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, and manufacturing sectors primarily in Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, China, and Japan, as well as in Thailand, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Russia, and 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. Vietnamese labor export companies, most of which are state-affiliated, may charge workers in excess of the fees allowed by law, sometimes as much as $10,000 to recruitment agencies for the opportunity to work abroad, incurring some of the highest debts among Asian expatriate workers, making them highly vulnerable to debt bondage and forced labor, and upon arrival in destination countries, some workers find themselves compelled to work in substandard conditions for little or