In Vietnam, an increasing number of young women are now marrying foreigners through marriage brokers. Last year, more than 10,000 Vietnamese women married men from South Korea alone. But the marriages are often ploys for cheap labor and abuse.
In Vietnam, an increasing number of young women are now marrying foreigners through marriage brokers. Last year, more than 10,000 Vietnamese women married men from South Korea alone. But the marriages are often ploys for cheap labor and abuse.
[blockquote]But the marriages are often ploys for cheap labor and abuse. [/blockquote]
This is, unfortunately, an old tradition throughout much of the world – particularly Asia. When I lived in the Arabian Gulf, there were several dozen Filipino women living in the basement of their embassy. They had come to the Gulf to work as house maids. When they arrived, their passports were taken by ‘their masters’ and they were then treated as slaves or sex workers. Many escaped to the embassy only to find that the local police would ‘arrest’ them and return them to bondage if they tried to leave the country; and because of the cozy relationship with the local royal family, their own government would do nothing beyond letting them live in the basement. The Philippine government did not want to endanger the labor contracts in had just to save a couple of dozen young women from poor families.