[Vietnamese] Mekong Delta poor lured into smuggling rings as porters

A porter carries a load across the border with Cambodia into Vietnam.

20/06/2009

VietNamNet Bridge - A large number of products are being illegally brought into Vietnam across the border with Cambodia by hundreds of locals who earn their living as porters for local smugglers.

The Go Market in Cambodia’s Ta Keo Province has for long been famous for its abundant supply of both new and used products from Thailand and China.

Just hundreds meters across the border with An Giang Province’s Chau Doc Town, the market hosts many electronics, cosmetics, liquor, cigarette, motor and bicycle stores.

It has become a common shopping center for many customers in the Mekong Delta who prefer the low prices of untaxed and/or used products, as well as for smugglers who buy the products to resell in the domestic market.

To meet the high demand for the smuggled goods, many “carrier” rings have been set up to carry the purchases across the border, and the buyers hire locals as porters.

Most of the porters are poor locals from Vinh Nguon Commune in An Giang Province’s Chau Doc Town who have small farm plots or possess no skills for other work besides farming, one of them said.

“A porter has to be a Vietnamese who knows the roads in Vietnam thoroughly to avoid being caught by local authorities,” he added.

This Thanh Nien reporter, who posed as a buyer, was offered porter services by a woman at a parking place near the border.

A man, known only as T., appeared shortly after the woman called him to act as a guide and coolie for the shopping expedition.

At the Go Market, a group of porters arrived at a store which remained closed as if it was not operating. However, they came out just minutes later with full loads on their shoulders and began the trip across the border to Vietnam.

T. said the store was owned by a Cambodian man known as a tycoon at the market, adding that the man even owns a gun to protect his business.

“For a porter, earning money is as easy as a sightseeing tour but also as risky and illegal as robbery,” said one of T.’s peers.

A porter is paid between VND15,000 (US$0.84) and VND20,000 ($1.12) per trip to carry goods across the border for a distance of around two kilometers. They make dozens of trips a day.

“We have to run as fast as we can to protect the goods and also avoid being caught after being spotted by anti-smuggling forces,” he said, adding that most of them run back across the border into Cambodia to avoid being caught.

The porters at Go Market often tell a story about a female porter who had to become a concubine of a smuggler after she could not pay back debts piled up after her load was seized by anti-smuggling forces.

A 21-year-old porter from the commune, known only as H., said he had to quit school several years ago to earn money for his sick father’s treatment.

The buyers had to pay 10 percent of the price of the products they helped carry cross the border, H. said. However, this money was collected by the one who hired them to work and he was only paid around VND300,000 ($17) a day.

He said the illegal work would not last for long and he will work there until he can earn enough money to learn skills for another job.

Weapon market in southern border area [-Border checkpoint without any police officers!]

A Cambodian border check-point in Bray Chusa, Ta Keo province, Cambodia.
A store in Go Market.

22/04/2009
Quoc Quang

VietNamNet Bridge – Swords, knives, electric rods, gas and iron-ball guns and slings are sold like food at Go Market, in Takeo province, Cambodia. Notably, this market mainly serves Vietnamese customers.

Go Market can be reached in around 30 minutes by boat from Chau Doc town, southern province of An Giang, Vietnam. The market is known as the “warehouse” of smuggled goods and weapons, serving Vietnamese customers.

At 7am on a Saturday, we left Chau Doc town, An Giang province in a small boat, with five other people, for Ta Keo province, Cambodia, without passports or visas.

An old man asked me: “You going there for money or shopping?” A little surprised, I answered “Both”.

“So you must be a rich man,” the old man laughed, and continued: “Local people go to Go Market for two purposes: purchasing goods or gambling.”

I didn’t know how to answer him, so only smiled, until the boat landed in Pung Xang, Bray Chusa district, Ta Keo province, Cambodia.

In front of me was a border check-point, a house-on-stilts, roofed by iron sheets, with a white word: Police. However, there was no guard inside. A small boy, around 10 years old, agreed to take me around Go Market by boat, at the price of VND50,000.

Go Market is a place for trade between Cambodians and Vietnamese so the Cambodian Riel, Vietnamese dong and US dollar are accepted.

The market comprises nearly 40 small houses-on-stilts but it supplies various kinds of goods, from MP3 players to laptops, electric bicycles. However, its most special product is weapons and porno disks.

At a house-on-stilts selling electronic wares, I saw two big plastic boxes containing porno VCDs and DVDs. The owner, a man in shorts and singlet, was telling his customers the price of each disk.

“I must tell you in advance that these films only have Thai language,” he spoke in Vietnamese.

Seeing me look unfavourably at the porno disks, he took me inside to introduce a “unique” product: electric rods.

He opened a cardboard box to show me around 10 electric rods and advertised that the 1800 volt rod could put anyone in a swoon.

To prove how the rod worked, he pulled out a black, rectangular box, a little bigger than a cigarette pack, and pushed the button. The box shot out electric sparks, which made the dog chained at the house corner bark.

Being surprised to see electric rods, a tool of policemen, offered for sale like vegetables, I refused to buy, explaining that I wanted to check the price at other shops.

The boy who gave me the boat trip, named Shi, who is illiterate, introduced to me all kinds of goods sold at Go Market and said if I wanted to buy, he would take me to the right addresses.

I was again surprised when another shopkeeper invited me to buy Japanese swords, specialised gloves to catch knives, and gas, iron-ball guns, which can kill cats and dogs.

Shi told me that most Vietnamese customers at Go Market buy electric rods, Japanese swords or guns.

Taking me to an electric bicycle store, Shi told the shopkeeper something in Cambodian, then he told me to enter the shop to choose goods. While I was there, he went to the nearby store to talk to other boys.

I entered the house and saw a big cardboard box containing three sets of Japanese swords and five long electric rods. Three other Vietnamese customers were considering the goods.

A young man in that group said they came from HCM City and they wanted to buy a special Japanese set of swords, named Shoushou, which can cut iron.

The shopkeeper said the store didn’t have that kind of sword right there and the customers had to pay in advance, VND2 million. After seven days, they would have the product.

A man explained to me that the swords at this store were also Japanese Katana swords. However, they were made from white Sanma steel, 1.2m long, and this kind of sword was not as sharp as Shoushou.

I pretended to not pay attention to swords to ask about guns. Immediately, the shopkeeper showed his prudence.

He said he didn’t sell guns with real bullets, just only colt guns using CO2 technology, or guns with plastic and lead bullets.

After considering what the shopkeepers introduced, the group of Vietnamese young people decided to buy three small electric rods, priced VND500,000 each and Yakizashi 0.9m sword, with an oak handle, at the cost of $50. The sellers covered these things with a big piece of cloth and gave it to the Vietnamese customers. The customers put the weapons in a box, covering them with bags of candies, cookies, shampoo and bath-oil bottles.

A man pulled out a mobile phone and made a phone call to the owner of the boat who brought them from An Giang to Ta Keo.

Less than a half an hour later, the boat came to take these customers to An Giang.