Vietnam trafficking victims back on track thanks to weaving talents

Weaving a better livelihood: Ethnic Hmong women checking traditional textiles at the Lung Tam Linen cooperative in Vietnam’s Quan Ba district. — AFP

QUAN BA (Vietnam): Thao Thi Van was just two when her mother disappeared during a trip to the market, likely taken by traffickers preying on women from the Hmong hill tribes of northern Vietnam to sell as brides or into brothels in China.

Now aged 13 she is still haunted by the fate of her missing mother but has found some solace at a textile cooperative for marginalised women in the region.