Dr. Thang took the opportunity to call on listeners to join the campaign to bring justice to these victims of labor trafficking.

The full interview is available at:  ttp://www.rfi.fr/vietnamien/actu/articles/116/article_4621.asp

Several listeners volunteered to send in donations to support the campaign targeting Sony and others offered to widen the letter writing campaign to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Europe.

“We count on such rippling effects to get Sony to do the right thing,” said Dr. Thang.

The staffer took great interest in the case and informed Dr. Thang that he will bring this case up before the Vietnamese officials when he meets with them later this month.

During discussions on Vietnamese law, Dr. Thang brought up the Sony-JR Holdings case in which 15 Vietnamese women workers were trafficked to Malaysia to work for Sony.  As part of a three pronged approach, Dr. Thang has brought this case up to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the State Department, and will meet with Ambassador-at-Large Louis CdeBaca, the Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (G/TIP), to brief him on the case before the latter heads to Malaysia.

The CAMSA Champion Team for the DC Metro Area held a meeting on Tuesday, August 11, 2009, to discuss fundraising ideas and advocacy efforts on behalf of the 15 Vietnamese workers working for Sony Electronics in Malaysia. These women have been trafficked by JR Holdings, a labor resource company that was used by Sony to recruit workers for their operations in Malaysia.

Team Captain P.K. Tran went over the agenda and brainstormed some ideas on raising $50,000 by the end of the year. Duc Truong, Advocacy Coordinator at BPSOS, gave the team members an update on the Sony case and where it stood.

“We have to work to show Sony that it is not ok for them to be doing business with a company that is involved in labor trafficking,” said Mr. Truong. “To do this, we need to launch a second wave of publicity campaign among college students and young professionals.”

So far, the DC CAMSA Champion Team has raised nearly $8,000 dollars from two different fundraising events.

“Our fundraising efforts have yielded some impressive results,” said Mr. Truong. “But in order to show Sony that we’re serious about pursuing this case to completion, we must raise more to support a law suit against JR Holdings, Sony’s labor supplier.”

“It typically takes about $50,000 a year to run our CAMSA office in Malaysia,” said Tracey Le, a CAMSA Intern. “With our fundraising and a match by an anonymous donor, I believe we can reach that goal by the end of the year.” She put together the CAMSA Champion Team in DC Metro Area.

Upon arriving into Penang, Malaysia, I was warmly hosted by Boat People SOS (BPSOS) and its organizational partner, Tenaganita. My primary objective was to visually document the stories of Vietnamese labour emigrants through a series of video interviews and photojournalism. Just twenty-four hours after my arrival, I dove in head first and began working immediately with these individuals unsure of what I would uncover. Little did I know the things I would be exposed to in the following weeks would come to change my life forever.

By keeping a low profile, the BPSOS team and I were able to venture into the rural areas of Malaysia to the holding blocks where thousands of human trafficking victims were forced to live in – either by force or through fiscal constraints. Groups of twelve workers (or more) are forced into two bedroom units and divided into ethnic enclaves. It made me realize all the simple privileges we take for granted in the United States. We take conveniences such as running water, food, sanitation, hot showers, sharing of resources (i.e. bathrooms, cooking space, etc.) and privacy for granted. However, despite their conditions, I was humbled by the friendly smiles, hopeful attitude, and the sense of community the workers made with one another. It was beautiful.

During my experience in Malaysia, one particular story that stood out was of two females who worked for JR Holdings, a labour import company that recruits workers for Sony Corporation. Deceived, exploited, and involuntarily imprisoned in their holding blocks, we were able to capture their stories of struggle and survival by going undercover and convincing the guards we were from Vietnam on vacation to visit our relatives. Allocated with only an hour to talk to us, they emotionally shared with us their experience. Physically drained and spiritually demoralized, both had not eaten for days. They had to sell their bodies for 30 ringgits (less than $8.50 USD) in order to get enough money to eat. Even then, the costs of food within the holding blocks are exceptionally expensive; thus, only allowing them a few bites to eat. It does not take long for one to realize that the issue of human trafficking is an unending circle of exploitation perpetuated by unregulated greed and protected by political elites at the cost of millions of lives.

Action is imperative.

There is so much more I want to share. I encourage anyone who is reading this article to broaden your global perspective by taking action through further informing yourself about the issues and spreading awareness to others. Visit the BPSOS website and/or watch our interview videos on Youtube for more information. If you still want to know more, I would be more than happy to meet-up and talk about it over a cup of coffee, a morning jog, or even a midnight pho run to any local Vietnamese plaza of your picking. I can be reached via email at andrenguyen@berkeley.edu. Fight the good fight.

In Love and Solidarity,
Andre Nguyen

CAMSA is looking to set up multiple teams around the U.S. to raise awareness within the community on labor trafficking and to set up campaigns against companies that use trafficked victims. CAMSA currently has 3 Champion Teams in different states and plan to form more teams to help with the campaign against companies who traffick victims.

On August 7, 2009, Dr. Thang Nguyen, Executive Director for Boat People, SOS (BPSOS), met with several Senate staffers to discuss several cases that CAMSA is working on. BPSOS, a CAMSA coalition member, was asked to give a briefing to the Senate staffers as they prepared for their trip to Malaysia.

Dr. Thang discussed Malaysia’s laws on trafficking. He pointed out how hard it has been to get the Malaysian government to enforce their own laws and how the laws favor the traffickers, not the victims.

He discussed the Sony, Winbond and Polar Twin Advance cases. The staff on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stated that they will explore these cases to the Malaysian government when they meet with them the following week. The Senate staff delegation will meet with the CAMSA team in Penang and other NGOs that have partnered with CAMSA.

On August 7, 2009, the CAMSA office in Penang, Malaysia filed a labor complaint on behalf of the remaining 4 workers in the Sony case. Both complaints were filed against JR Holdings, the Malaysian labor supply company that placed the workers with Sony.

This will prevent JR Holdings from sending the workers back to Vietnam and gives CAMSA and its team the opportunity to file suit against JR Holdings to secure the back-wages that they deserve and to press the Malaysian government for criminal investigation of the case.

Tuesday, August 6, 2009: Luis CdeBaca, Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the U.S. Department of State invited a select group of interns in the Washington, DC metro area to attend a roundtable on trafficking in persons. The discussion on human trafficking drew a wide range of responses from the participants. They were all interested in stopping what has been described as “modern-day slavery”. Tracey Le, an intern with BPSOS, led a discussion on a case involving 15 Vietnamese women who were trafficked to Malaysia to work at Sony plants. These women mortgaged their homes and farms to scrape up enough money to pay the broker fees to sign contracts guaranteeing 3 years of employment at set wages. However, Sony breached that contract and let the women go—even though they still had 20 months left on their contract. These women have been locked in a holding facility run by JR Holdings since then. Sony has refused to honor the contracts the women signed with them.