Three HCMC restaurants found offering sex to foreigners for $100
Police in Ho Chi Minh City have broken up a sex ring operated by three restaurants that provided sex services to foreigners, and have detained 34 people for questioning.
The managers at these facilities charged customers US$100 per session on average, and they often exchanged their sex workers as a way to attract more customers, police said.
At 12:45 am on Wednesday, more than 100 police officers raided the White Lotus Hotel at 6A Thi Sach Street, District 1, and found two foreigners and two Vietnamese sex workers having sex in separate rooms.
From there testimonies, police then inspected three restaurants in District 1, including Nhip Dieu, at 6B Thi Sach Street; Hai Chi Em, at 44 Dong Du Street; and Sinobar, also on Dong Du Street.
During the inspections, police seized books that recorded details of the prostitution rings operated by the three restaurants and escorted 34 people to the district police office for questioning.
Sinobar is co-owned by Nguyen Thi Ngoc Loan, 38, from Binh Thanh District, and Nguyen Thi Nguyet Lan, 33, from District 2. It is open from 5:30 pm to 3 am every day.
Both Loan and Lan told investigators that they provided services only to foreigners, who negotiated with attendants – who also worked as sex workers – on prices. The average price was US$100 per session.
Customers were required to pay VND400,000-600,000 ($18.8-$28.3) to the restaurant in advance as a brokering fee before they were taken to a hotel for sex.
“Foreigners who do not pay the advance are required to drink seven glasses of wine at VND70,000 per glass,” a sex worker said. In the event that they cannot drink seven glasses, they are still required to pay for that many before they can take a sex worker to a hotel.”
Loan and Lan had hired Nguyen Thanh Luan, a 36-year-old man, to guard the restaurant and manage the sex workers in their deals with customers.
Customers had to pay for their hotel room as well, the pimps said.
After deducting costs, the two women each earned VND30 million ($1,410) per month.
Loan and Lan, along with Nguyen Thi Kim, 35, from Binh Thanh, and Nguyen Thanh Hien, 36, from District 1, opened Nhip Dieu restaurant, which also provided sex to foreigners only.
Similarly, Hai Chi Em, which is owned by Pham Thi Hoa, 32, provided sex services to foreigners as well.
Hoa charged customers $100 per session and they were required to pay her a fee of VND600,000 ($28.3) per session.
Police are continuing to investigate the sex ring’s operations to clarify the connection between the three restaurants.
Prostitution is illegal in Vietnam.
AFP reported in an article in September that researchers estimate there are around 200,000 sex workers in Vietnam, both full-time and occasional, of whom up to 40 percent are believed to be HIV-positive.
In Ho Chi Minh City, police statistics show there are at least 30,000 establishments linked to the sex trade – from massage parlors and karaoke lounges to actual brothels, the article says.
In August, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs proposed heavier penalties for pimps as a measure to combat the rise of prostitution, which followed the issuance of a relevant governmental decree.
Under Decree 111/2013, which took effect on July 1, 2013, it is no longer compulsory to send prostitutes to rehabilitation centers, instead, relevant agencies level an administrative fine of VND100,000-300,000 ($4.7-$14.1) and set them free.
The decree also regulates that the time limit for the detention of a prostitutes must be less than 24 hours.
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