Officials find 1,000 children molested a year in Vietnam 

Last updated: 9/25/2010 11:15 

Last year 833 children in Vietnam were found molested across the country, the Ministry of Labors, War Invalids and Social Affairs reported at a conference in Hanoi Wednesday.

Meanwhile, 1,427 cases were recorded in 2008, bringing the annual number of sexual abuse cases to over 1,000 on average per year between 2008 and 2009, according to the ministry.

However, Nguyen Hai Huu, chief of the ministry’s Children Care and Protection Agency, said the figures in reality is much higher, as there are many cases that weren’t reported to agencies because the latter’s management isn’t strict enough.

Not to mention that victims’ families usually choose to keep silence, because they are ashamed or afraid that their children’s future will be affected, or accept compensations from other party, he said.

Huu also warned about increases in the number of children kidnapped and violently abused at the conference of “Preventing violence and abusing from children,” held by the ministry in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Training and international organizations.

In fact, 628 children were recorded to be kidnapped last year, almost tripling the year before, according to the ministry, noting that it mainly happened at border areas and victims are often trafficked to China or Cambodia.

In the meantime, between 2008 and 2009, nearly 6,000 cases where children were violently abused were reported nationwide, the ministry said.

It was estimated that over 100 children were murdered a year, the Ministry of Public Security reported.

Participants at the conference also voiced their concerns over recent high-profile school violence cases.

Nguyen Dinh Manh, deputy chief of the education ministry’s Students’ Affairs Department, said since the last school year of 2009-2010, Vietnam has recorded 1,598 cases of students fighting nationwide, seven of which were deadly

Source: Thanh Nien, VNA