The statistics come in the wake of 39 Vietnamese nationals being found dead in a container truck in southeast England.

Dan Tri reports that a conference on human trafficking was held in Saigon on November 29. At the meeting, Nguyen Xuan Lap, head of the Social Evils Prevention Department under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said that 3,476 Vietnamese people have been trafficked since 2013. Over 90% of the victims have been women and children.

The conference aimed to review the implementation of certain articles under the Law on Human Trafficking Prevention and Combat.

The news source cites the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime as saying that there are 244 million international migrants globally, a number that is increasing due to terrorism, war and other forms of violence. Many of these people fall victim to trafficking.

Le Van Nhan, deputy head of the Anti-Human Trafficking Office under the Ministry of Public Security, spoke about the local context of trafficking: "The Mekong sub-region, including Vietnam, is considered a hot spot for human trafficking and illegal migrations, with profits from trafficking activities estimated at up to dozens of billions of dollars a year."

He added that most trafficking victims live in rural, impoverished areas, and some are promised lucrative work overseas only to end up working in awful conditions.

Such a reality has been front-page news recently, as 39 Vietnamese migrants were found dead in Essex in late October. The victims, who hailed from poor communities in six provinces in north-central and northern Vietnam, were attempting to reach the UK to work illegally and send money back home.

After a long process, the remains of the 39 were finally repatriated to Vietnam last weekend.