Yes. It is a huge problem in Vietnam. Part of the reason is that a lot of these trafficking rings actually either sponsor or are under the protection of the police, as you may have guessed, this being a very corrupt system. The police and local officials are very much involved in all of this trafficking activity.
As far as I know, the women who have been trafficked throughout Southeast Asia number into the hundreds of thousands. In the Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong area alone we are talking about approximately 70,000 to 85,000 women. I visited South Korea two years ago and met with some of these women who were trafficked and rescued. The estimate by the South Korean government is anywhere between 45,000 and 50,000 women trafficked from Vietnam into South Korea.
It is a huge problem. We've been trying to work with many international NGOs to address the issue. However, it's hard to deal with this problem because it originated in Vietnam, and as I said, at times under the protection of the police and local government officials. It is very hard to put an end to this problem because we don't have the cooperation of the Government of Vietnam, and it's very hard to deal with.
As far as children are concerned, I am not as familiar. However, I am very familiar with children trafficking to neighbouring countries, especially to Cambodia. I don't have a lot of information about children being trafficked elsewhere, but in Cambodia I do have quite a familiarity with the area. It has been estimated there are about 30,000 to 35,000 children from Vietnam currently residing in Cambodia and mostly being exploited as prostitutes.
I have met with a few of them. The youngest was six years old and the oldest was fourteen, mostly girls but a lot of boys too. It is truly heartbreaking to see that first-hand. I have worked with a couple of groups trying to get help to some of these kids, but then again, the problem originated in Vietnam. If we cannot get any cooperation from the Vietnamese government, then it becomes very difficult.