Bui Thi Anh, a Vietnamese woman, never dreamed that she could be rescued so soon after being "sold" for 9,000 yuan (US$1,084) in South China's Guangdong Province two months ago.

On July 5, police from the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region rescued Bui and two other Vietnamese women in Suixi Township in Zhanjiang city.

They were not alone.

Police from China and Viet Nam rescued 37 Vietnamese women and arrested eight people (six of them Vietnamese) who they say organized trafficking of the victims, a news release from Guangxi police said on Monday.

The women were saved thanks to a joint operation between Guangxi and Viet Nam authorities, the release said, calling the rescue a good start to a two-month joint anti-abduction campaign from July to September.

"Combating human trafficking is the first campaign under a package of agreements between Chinese and Vietnamese police departments in fighting cross-border crimes," Zhu Yantao, a Ministry of Public Security official, said yesterday.

Efforts began in April, with police from the two sides reaching agreements to co-operate on law enforcement, information sharing and the training of personnel, Zhu said.

"It is of great importance for both countries to fight against human trafficking crimes," said an official with the Vietnamese embassy in Beijing who declined to be identified.

A Guangxi police official said: "In Bui's case, Vietnamese police had notified their Guangxi counterparts of the exact position of the victims a week earlier."

Sharing a water border of 2,600 kilometres and a land border of more than 1,000 kilometres, Guangxi and Viet Nam constantly battle cross-border crimes such as human trafficking, said Zhu, who supervised the operation.

In 2004, Guangxi police department handled 23 human trafficking cases, arrested 40 suspects and released 58 trafficked women.

Much trafficking involves women and girls from Viet Nam who are destined for the sex trade, experts said.

On July 4, police from Chongzuo in Guangxi launched a blitz to rescue 11 Vietnamese sex workers. They caught three suspects who allegedly coerced them into prostitution in Xinning township, Fusui county, according to a news release.

Besides Guangxi, other trafficking destinations are Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shandong and Henan provinces.

Statistics indicate that Guangxi has repatriated more than 1,000 trafficked women over the past four years.

"By fighting hard against the trafficking of women and children, we want to send a strong signal that China is not a haven for human trafficking crimes," Zhu said.

According to Zhu, all six countries in the Greater Mekong Region reached an agreement last year to fight human trafficking.

As well as China and Viet Nam, the agreement also includes Myanmar, Thailand, Laos as well as Cambodia.

(China Daily 07/13/2005 page1)