WASHINGTON — A Vietnamese woman on Tuesday accused the Hanoi government and US companies of supporting human trafficking, telling a Congressional hearing chaired by US Representative Chris Smith that she was assaulted and worked as a virtual slave in Jordan.
In a sometimes emotional appearance before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee, Vu Phuong-Anh said that she still suffered trauma and has repeatedly received threats even after she resettled in the United States.
"I know that testifying today will increase the risk to me and my family. However, I must bring to light the human trafficking that the Vietnamese government supports so that no one else will need to suffer like me," she said.
Vu, a Christian from the minority Hmong ethnicity, said that a Taiwanese contractor for US companies offered her a job at a sewing factory in 2008 with promises of eight-hour workdays and $300 monthly salaries.
But she said the Taiwanese company sent her to Jordan, where she and 270 other Vietnamese worked more than 16 hours a day for $1 daily. When the workers went on strike, she said that they were beaten with batons, first by guards escorted by their Vietnamese labor-export company and then Jordanian police.
Vu said that the Vietnamese government sent a delegation to Jordan and that officials accused her of being "reactionary" and accepting money from foreign non-governmental groups and warned her of future punishment.
"The delegation from Vietnam gave us nothing, not even a pack of noodles, an ounce of medicine or a penny in spite of our apparent weakness, illness and malnourishment," she said.
Vu said that the Vietnamese workers were allowed home after Smith -- who chaired Tuesday's hearing -- raised their case with Jordan's King Abdullah II and Queen Noor, whom she thanked.
Through a plan with a support group, Vu said she sneaked off in Bangkok during an airport layover. But she charged that Vietnamese personnel threatened and tailed her, forcing her to move repeatedly for her safety during more than two years she spent in Thailand.
She broke down as she explained that she did not feel safe enough to return to Vietnam for the funeral of her three-year-old daughter who died in an accident.
Vu also denounced US companies, whose logos she said she saw at the factory in Jordan, but said that her lawyer advised her not to name them publicly as she is preparing legal action.
Vietnam has defended its record on trafficking. In a 2010 statement, the foreign ministry said that Vietnam "consistently fights and seriously punishes this crime" and said US criticism was "politically charged and biased."
Vu was assisted by Nguyen Dinh Thang, executive director of the Vietnamese American group Boat People SOS, who alleged that the Vietnamese police have sided with state-owned labor export companies instead of victims.
"Almost routinely, the Vietnamese government has sent its officials from Hanoi to 'trouble-spots' in order silence the victims, take sides with the traffickers or to impede justice," charged Nguyen, who said his group has rescued more than 3,000 migrants from similar conditions.
Smith, the author of a landmark US law against trafficking, said that Vietnam's human rights record was "dismal" despite efforts by President Barack Obama's administration to expand cooperation with the former war foe.
Smith pledged to push forward a proposal that would prohibit increases in non-humanitarian US assistance to Vietnam without "substantial
progress" on human rights issues such as freedom of expression and religion.
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