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Mon, Dec 28, 2009
The New Paper
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We’re bride brokers, not human traffickers
by Crystal Chan

ONCE, Vietnamese girls lined up in their village to meet groups of Singaporean bride hunters, led there by matchmakers.

The women were dressed to charm. The men would gaze at them, occasionally exchanging notes with each other.

Now, the men go just one at a time, discreetly, and there is no parade.

Said Mr Loi Eng Tuang, owner of Ideal Marriage Centre: “I take a client to see only the girl he is interested in, picked from the photos we show him in Singapore.

“If you have a village full of girls waiting for your clients, you’d invite attention and thus, trouble.”

However, in Singapore, groups of Vietnamese girls can still be seen sitting in these matchmaking agency offices.

The trouble for the matchmakers is that what they do might be deemed human trafficking.

Is parading women for suitors matchmaking or exploitation of the poor?

Brokers claim they’re providing a mutually beneficial service. But welfare workers say the women are treated like goods.

Vietnamese authorities also disapprove and have been taking tough action. They have jailed some middlemen based there.

Such moves have hit the family of Mr Francis Toh, 54, who owns the First Overseas International Matchmaker in Katong Shopping Centre.

His wife of eight years, Madam Rachel Nguyen, 28, is from Vietnam. In September, her brother, Nguyen Van Phat, 35, was arrested for taking two Malaysian men on a matchmaking trip to villages in Tay Ninh province, near Ho Chi Minh City.

Phat had arranged for scores of prospective brides to be lined up for the inspection of his Malaysian clients. He was convicted of human trafficking and jailed 12 years.

Mr Toh’s one-time middleman has also been jailed, for nine years, for the same offence.

Madam Nguyen said her brother first went into the business in 2005 wanting to help local women.

Getting pointers

She said in Mandarin: “He got some pointers from my husband about how to get Malaysian contacts and from there, he began taking men on matchmaking tours.”

She said Phat would bring two or three girls to agencies in Singapore and Malaysia. When they couldn’t find husbands, they would be sent home, but at a cost to the agency.

Mr Toh said: “Nobody realises that we actually make a loss if the girls return to Vietnam, because we have to cover their living expenses and air fare.”

Madam Nguyen said that although matchmakers charge anything from $6,800 to $8,000 for a marriage, they don’t make much money after deducting overheads such as the girls’ living expenses and air fare.

She said: “We have to pay more for utilities, and we also have to buy food for the girls. That alone is over $2,000 for each girl as their social visit pass lasts a month.”

Phat’s Malaysian customers were jailed six months each, a lighter sentence than that imposed on the marriage broker.

Mr Toh said: “Previously, I could take as many as eight Singaporean men on trips to Vietnam where there could be many girls in the villages for their choosing.

“But because the Vietnamese authorities have started cracking down on marriage brokers, we have to be wary. The number of girls available has also dwindled to less than 10 as they’d be arrested if there’s a raid.”

Now, the women who wait at Mr Toh’s marriage agency, and the other agencies, are mostly introduced to him through their relatives who married Singaporean men.

Mr Loi of Ideal Marriage Centre adopts a one-on-one approach to introductions.

“That’s the way I’ve been doing things in my four years in the business,” he said.

“This is because Vietnam has never made it legal for foreign marriage brokers to operate.”

The matchmakers make it clear that they do not force the women into marriage. Mr Mark Lin, owner of Vietnam Brides International, said: “Marriage has to be an agreement between two parties. Even if the client is keen, but the girl isn’t, I can’t force them to get married.”

Last month, AFP reported that Chinese police rescued 18 Vietnamese women who had been kidnapped and sold into marriages in south-east China.

Syndicate uncovered


Malaysia’s The Star also reported on 19 Dec that a syndicate had been uncovered by Vietnamese police after sending 400 women to Malaysia, with some allegedly taken to Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea.

About 80 women found husbands in Malaysia and 223 others returned to Vietnam.

Some 100 other women are unaccounted for, sparking fears they could have been sold into prostitution, reported The Star.

Cases of abused Vietnamese wives in South Korea and Taiwan as well as fears that the marriage agency could be a cover for prostitution rings have led to the Vietnamese government’s crackdown, reported Thanh Nien News, a Vietnamese newspaper.

Mr Toh said there are happy endings too, pointing to his own marriage. He has a daughter, 6, from the marriage.

He said: “There are girls who are happily married and who settled into life here, but the Vietnamese media doesn’t focus on these. And if we can’t marry the girls off and they have to be returned to Vietnam, we’re accused of human trafficking.”

This article was first published in The New Paper.

 

readers' comments
so far as i know, my cousin marriage with a viet girl, has been quite smooth-going.
seems to quite dote on his wife till an extent she doesn't need to do much housework except looking after her baby girl.
Posted by arsenal_84 on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 at 16:10 PM
Very happy to hear that the vietnamese governments are taking strong actions.It is sad to see a 20 year old girl marrying a 50 or a 60 year old man. To make things worst, they have to adapt to a new environment and may have to double up as a maid. In some cases, the men do not even have a steady income and if they have a child..the poor gal will be left to fend for herself in the years to come.
Posted by shreklight on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 at 11:41 AM
If these prospective girls are treated humanely & according to the laws, domestic or international, there shldn't be a problem or a big issue. Its the intentions of the match-making agencies, the potential brides & grooms & their respective families that really matters. If the local men seeks foreign brides bec they prefer foreign women to share their lives with & to raise families locally, its their right & as long as their intentions are honourable & good & which served both parties needs admirably.
Posted by chieftain on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 at 15:14 PM

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