Hanoi- Vietnamese police have broken up a second marriage-brokering business in a month, raiding a house in southern Ho Chi Minh City where young women were lined up for "inspection" by prospective husbands, police said Tuesday. Police found 66 Vietnamese women and three South Korean men at the home and arrested the Vietnamese businessman that was running the match-making business.
"We are keeping the leaders of the ring under custody for further questioning," said Dinh Tran, an official in the city's Social Crime Investigation Department.
Local media reported that the girls lined up for "inspection" including pulling up their shirts and skirts.
"It's illegal because they collect money from the girls to be candidates for South Korean men to select," he added.
Most of the women found at the home were between 18 and 20 years old, according to local newspaper Tuoi Tre, which identified the leader of the business as Thi Vinh Khuong, 42.
Earlier this month, police busted another marriage brokerage for South Korean men in Ho Chi Minh City.
Vietnamese young women have been entering into arranged marriages with husbands - often older men from Taiwan, China or South Korea - for years, but making money off the match-making is illegal.
According to government figures, some 50,000 Vietnamese - mostly women - have married foreigners since 2003. Many are voluntary, but authorities are cracking down because of reports some women have been tricked into sex work or domestic servitude abroad.
"There's nothing wrong with brokering marriages between Vietnamese people and foreigners. It's only illegal when the brokerage is involved in human trafficking or illegal exits," said Tran Trong Luong, deputy head of the Social Crime Department.
