Viet Nam: children in prostitution in Hanoi, Hai Phong, Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho: a rapid assessment

Provides some limited insight into the situation of young people involved in prostitution in Viet Nam.

This Rapid Assessment provides some limited insight into the situation of young people involved in prostitution in Viet Nam. The bulk of the information is based on interviews with 122 children, with brothel owners and with pimps (the latter two actors rarely, if at all, ever studied) in four locations in the North and South sides of the country.

Although it is a Rapid Assessment and the numbers presented here are only estimates1 or relatively representative only for the four geographical areas covered, the report provides some in-depth understanding of the issues of children in prostitution.

The studies for this report were conducted separately; an assessment was carried out in the North in 1999 and a complementing one in the South was done the following year. The research began with a review of existing literature to determine what has been previously known about young people engaged in prostitution.