HANOI - A syndicate here got rich by trafficking  Vietnamese women to Malaysia and other Asian countries.

The alleged traffickers received US$500 (RM1,700) for each woman they sent abroad and an additional $1,000 (RM3,400) for each one that found a foreign husband.

The trafficking ring was uncovered late last year in Ho Chi Minh City when police detained its alleged leader, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Yen, 53, and three of her associates after they helped a woman check in for a flight to Malaysia.

Four to face the courts

Four people will be prosecuted for trafficking 400 women overseas, mainly to Malaysia, police said here on Friday. Some of the women were sent to Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea.

About 80 women found husbands in Malaysia while 223 returned home to Vietnam.

The whereabouts of nearly 100 others remain unknown, according to a provincial police officer. Some, he said, may have been forced into prostitution.

Most of the trafficked women were said to be from Tay Ninh and other Mekong Delta provinces, he said. - M