MORE ON VIETNAMESE BRIDES TO TAIWAN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 000456

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PREL CVIS KWMN TIP ELAB SMIG SOCI TW VM
SUBJECT: MORE ON VIETNAMESE BRIDES TO TAIWAN

REF: 05 HCMC 1299

HO CHI MIN 00000456 001.2 OF 002



1. (SBU) Summary. During a recent visit to the Mekong Delta
province of Can Tho, a local reporter and expert on women's
issues estimated that at least 14,000 women -- mostly poor and
uneducated -- have married Taiwanese and some South Korean men
since 2000. The perceived economic benefits of overseas
marriage are driving the process. Matchmakers play a key
recruiting role in these legal marriages. The expert is
concerned that the young, uneducated women do not appreciate the
consequences of overseas marriage. She also reported some cases
of possible trafficking of women once in Taiwan as well as "bait
and switch" of grooms on the eve of marriage in Vietnam. The
expert wants local government to step up its education outreach
to local women to counter what she sees as an impending increase
in efforts of matchmakers in the Mekong Delta. Septel reports
on our conversations in Can Tho with Women's Union and police
officials on Taiwanese brides and TIP. End Summary.


2. (SBU) During a visit to the Mekong Delta province of Can on
April 11, we met with Ms. Thanh Trang, Social Affairs Reporter
for the Can Tho bureau of Thanh Nien newspaper to discuss the
Vietnamese brides to Taiwan issue in the Mekong Delta. Ms.
Trang (protect) has covered the bridal export phenomenon and TIP
issues for years for Thanh Nien, one of Vietnam's leading news
dailies.


3. (SBU) According to Trang, 14,000 women in Can Tho province
married foreigners from 2000 to 2004. (In 2004, Can Tho had a
population of 1.1 million.). Ninety percent of these women
married Taiwanese men; the bulk of the remainder married South
Koreans. Eighty percent of the women were from the countryside.
Seventy percent said they married for economic reasons. Roughly
one in six women claimed they were pressured by their parents to
marry foreign men.

Traveling Matchmakers
--------------


4. (SBU) Through her interviews of Vietnamese who returned from
failed marriages in Taiwan, Trang said she was able to build a
picture of the typical process in which local women are
recruited. Matchmakers play a key role. They usually travel
from house to house in the Can Tho countryside, asking if anyone
wants to marry a Taiwanese man. Matchmakers start recruiting in
one area of a village and soon word spreads among the families
about the "opportunities" to marry a foreigner.


5. (SBU) The foreign man generally pays the matchmaker a
sizeable fee. In turn, the matchmaker gives a small amount of
money to the family of the woman; Trang approximates between
three and five million VND (USD 190 to USD 315). While the
family is aware ahead of time that they will receive very little
money up front, poor families are eager to marry their daughters
off to foreigners because of the prospects that the women will
be able to support the family through remittances.


6. (SBU) Trang believes that the majority of women who marry
foreigners have no more than a sixth grade education. The lack
of education combined with lack of economic opportunity creates
an environment where women see marriages to foreigners as a way
out. Trung cited a recent survey conducted by the city of Can
Tho in which 2000 brides were asked about their motivations for
marrying a foreigner. Two thirds said they wanted to marry a
Taiwanese man because they were jobless and wanted to solve
financial problems. Roughly the same amount admitted that they
had no clear idea of what their lives would be overseas.

Making a Match
--------------


7. (SBU) After being recruited, Trang said there are generally
three ways in which the "matchmaking" process is handled:

-- In the village, the Vietnamese woman is shown a picture of
her prospective husband by the matchmaker and chooses to marry
the man based on the picture. If the woman agrees to the
marriage, the matchmaker will complete the local Vietnamese
legal paperwork, which is then signed by the bride. In these
cases, the matchmaker will arrange for the groom to travel to
Can Tho for the wedding.

-- The woman travels to HCMC's District 10 to meet the groom and
hold the marriage ceremony. According to Trang, District 10 --
a center of the Chinese community in HCMC -- is where the
matchmakers bring together the bulk foreign grooms and their
Vietnamese brides.

-- In other cases, the recruited woman will travel to HCMC where
she will join other potential brides. As prospective grooms
arrive, the woman will join a line-up from which the foreigner
will choose a woman to marry. If chosen, the necessary

HO CHI MIN 00000456 002.2 OF 002


paperwork will be completed and the marriage ceremony will take
place immediately.

Bait and Switch?
--------------


8. (SBU) Trang claimed to be aware of cases where, on the day of
her wedding, the prospective bride finds that her groom is not
the man in the photograph that she was shown back in Can Tho.
The substitute was invariably old or disabled. However, Trung
was not aware of any cases where the women backed out of the
marriage.

Hidden Societal Costs
--------------


9. (SBU) Trung argues that the phenomenon of Vietnamese women
marrying foreigners has transformed demographics of some parts
of Can Tho province. A case in point is Can Tho's Thot Not
district, which is locally known as "Taiwan Island." Trang
claims that in this district, every family has at least one
daughter married to a Taiwanese man. The process started when
one family had two daughters who married Taiwanese men. With
money that these women sent home, the family was able to build a
very large house. When neighbors saw what happened, everyone
wanted their daughters to marry Taiwanese. Trang claims that 60
percent of women in the district have married Taiwanese men.


10. (SBU) In neighboring Dong Thap province, Trang said there
are many cases of Vietnamese women marrying Taiwanese,
divorcing, and then returning to Vietnam along with their
Taiwan-born children. Some of these women face difficulty
reintegrating. For example, she believes that there are up to
500 children who do not have birth certificates or other
official documentation. As a result, the children do not have
access to free medical care, cannot participate in vaccination
programs and cannot be registered to attend school in Vietnam.


11. (SBU) Trang acknowledges that, according to the information
she has available, the marriages are perfectly legal under
Vietnamese law. However, she frets that the young, uneducated
women that are typically involved have inaccurate and
preconceived notions about what their lives outside of Vietnam
will be like. At a bare minimum, the women's inability to speak
the local language in her new home country often leads to a
stressed marriage and a life of isolation. She said that, in
some cases, spousal abuse is an issue.


12. (SBU) Trang said, that it also appears that, once in Taiwan,
some Vietnamese women find that they are pressured into
prostitution or servitude. Trang tells the story of Nguyen Thi
Phuong, from Vi Thanh District in Can Tho, who returned from
Taiwan in mid-September 2005. Phuong married a Taiwanese man
when she was 19 and moved to Taiwan. Not long after, she gave
birth to a child. Ten days after the delivery, her husband
forced her to return to work, taking care of some 700 pigs on a
pig farm. Her husband beat her every time a pig died. Her
husband cut off all of her phone contact to Vietnam. She tried
to contact Taiwanese police, but spoke no Taiwanese. For
reasons unclear to Trang, after 3 years she failed to obtain her
Taiwanese citizenship and was deported back to Vietnam. Trang
tells the story of another unnamed woman who married a Taiwanese
man and later was forced to sleep with all three of her
brothers-in-law.

Seeking a More Emphatic Government Response
--------------


13. (SBU) Trang says that the Women's Union in Can Tho needs to
do more to educate women in the countryside about the potential
dangers of marrying foreigners. She acknowledged that the
Women's Union and the Can Tho Police do meet and work together,
but, as far as she can see, concrete output has been minimal
thus far. She said that it was imperative that the government
respond more aggressively as the reach of matchmakers into Can
Tho probably would increase in the future. The opening of a new
airport in Can Tho by the end of 2006 and the building of a
bridge connecting Can Tho with the highway to HCMC could lead to
more matchmakers and perspective foreign husbands visiting the
province in the future.
Winnick