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IV. The Evolution of Vietnam’s Approach to Street Children

Vietnam’s distinction as the second country in the world to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)⁴⁹ in 1990 was followed by steps to legislate for the protection of children. In 1991 Vietnam’s National Assembly passed a Law on Child Protection, Care and Education.

In the early 1990s, the government established the Vietnamese National Commission for Children. It was later combined with the family planning ministry and renamed the Committee for Population, Family and Children (CPFC).⁵⁰

At a national conference in December 1991, attended by senior government and Party officials, international donors, UN agencies, and diplomats, participants issued a strong statement of support for the Convention on the Rights of the Child:

We are deeply conscious that children constitute the happiness of the family and are the future of the country. The protection, care and education of children are the responsibility of the State, society and of every family. The CRC is an opportunity for each country to take an active role in this noble cause.⁵¹

1980s: Institutionalization

Until the early 1990s the government’s response to the problem of street children was largely to arrest them and send them to state holding centers:

The main response of the state was to round up street children and put them in state institutions from where they either escaped (if it was possible to do so) or were released after some time to their families.… Most children who escaped or were released from confinement returned to the street, often to be picked up and taken back again. Those institutions provided varying but generally poor standards of education, vocational training and recreation for the children. In reality they were not much more than holding centers.⁵²

During the 1980s government officials were skeptical about “social work” approaches to social problems, believing instead that such problems should be solved by policies set by the Communist Party and implemented by government institutions or mass organizations,⁵³ with communities sharing some of the responsibility.⁵⁴

New directions in the 1990s

By the Eighth Party Congress in 1996, the government was pursuing an ambitious time frame for economic development. It began to develop new plans for social policies, including hunger and poverty alleviation, job creation, and the campaign against social evils.⁵⁵

Influenced in part by foreign NGOs, which started working in larger numbers in Vietnam in the early 1990s, the government began to consider different approaches to the problem of street children, such as establishing informal drop-in centers and using outreach workers to approach children on the street. ⁵⁶

In 1998, the prime minister issued a directive to “prevent and tackle” the problem of street children.⁵⁷ It presented sweeping goals but offered few details on implementation, solutions such as rehabilitation, and especially, penalties for abusers.

In 1999, Prime Ministerial Decision 134 outlined programs to protect children in special circumstances, including street children.⁵⁸ The Ninth Party Congress in 2001 used the term “child rights” for the first time in a Party document:

The policy to take care and protect children focuses on implementing children’s rights, creating favorable conditions for them to live in a safe and wholesome environment, developing harmoniously their physical and mental health, and their moral standards, and creating chances of education and entertainment for orphans, handicapped children, and those living in special disadvantaged conditions.⁵⁹

A National Plan of Action for Children for the period 2001-2010, a prime ministerial decision, was adopted in February 2001.⁶⁰ In terms of protection of children, the plan outlines four key objectives: a) ensuring the protection of the maximum number of children against discrimination, exploitation, and abuse, b) increasing support and assistance for children in need of special protection, c) ensuing early discovery and strict handling of child abuse cases, and d) preventing violence among children and minimizing accidents and injuries to children.⁶¹

Drop-in centers and street-based services

Since 1999, the Committee for Population, Family and Children has operated drop-in counseling centers for street children in each of Hanoi’s 16 districts. (These are different from Social Protection Centers.) The CPFC also implements a UNICEF-initiated Project for the Protection and Care of Street Children, which focuses on Hanoi and several key provinces from which street children originate.⁶² The program aims to provide educational, recreational, and counseling support for street children at drop-in centers in several of Hanoi’s districts. The European Commission and Plan International also provide funding support.

The centers are staffed by volunteer “collaborators,” who may be retired women, members of the Women’s Union, or commune-level employees of People’s committees. However, social work remains a relatively new field in Vietnam, and there are few trained social workers able to assist street children.⁶³

The centers collect data about street children such as family income and health statistics, and provide basic counseling services and information about personal health, drug abuse, HIV/AIDS, and sex education. Few of the collaborators have been formally trained in social work so UNICEF provides training for them as well.⁶⁴ The program also organizes monthly “children’s club” meetings for about 100 children per district per month.⁶⁵

Ongoing institutionalization and street sweeps

Despite the establishment of CPFC drop-in counseling centers, it is clear that the government never fully abandoned the approach of involuntary institutionalization or detention of street children.

In theory, police who pick up street children who have not committed any crime are supposed to take them to drop-in centers, where staff is supposed to try to find out where the children are from and if possible, reunite them with their families. In practice, this rarely happens.⁶⁶  

Police often bypass the drop-in centers and send street children directly to a Social Protection Center, especially during official round-up campaigns.

“The CPFC is supposed to manage the problem, but in fact police often send street children to Social Protection Centers,” said a staff person from an international organization in Hanoi. “There’s no coordination, and no support or supervision once they’re in the [centers].” ⁶⁷

A social worker told Human Rights Watch: “CPFC denies that children are being arrested and imprisoned. Their claim is that they meet children on the street and ask them if they have families they can be returned to. If the children say ‘yes,’ CPFC helps them go back to their families. If ‘no,’ they are taken to a center to ‘protect’ them. This is usually Dong Dau detention center.”⁶⁸

In advance of the South East Asian Games at the end of 2003, the government increasingly authorized street sweeps and detention of the most visible street children (see below). The policy appears to have continued to the present time, culminating with sweeps prior to the November 2006 APEC meetings in Hanoi.

Terre des hommes Foundation, which works with street children in Vietnam, has described the police sweeps:

During the round-up campaigns, which are decided by higher authorities, the police are instructed to pick up vagrant people of all categories, including children. These campaigns are frequent and generally last for weeks or even months each time, usually in advance of the major national festivals. The people collected during these operations are sent directly to transit centers in the city [i.e. Social Protection Centers], from where they are sent to the camp or institution, which corresponds to their particular category.⁶⁹

Decisions to launch campaigns to clear the streets of children who are begging or bothering tourists come as directives from the local People’s Committee or DOLISA.

The 2003 crackdown

For those that still have parents but prefer freedom in the street, we will give them some lessons about life….Hanoi needs a major beauty treatment, especially before the games begin in December.
—Nguyen Quy Thu, director of Hanoi Children and Family Committee, regarding the 2003 clean-up drive⁷⁰

One example of an officially-authorized round-up campaign in Hanoi is the crackdown that took place in 2003, as the date for the international South East Asian Games approached.⁷¹

In April 2003 the CPFC announced that it would be implementing a new plan to swiftly decrease the numbers of children on the street in advance of the upcoming SEA Games. The plan called for street children who lacked adult care to be sent back to their families in their home provinces if at all possible. Otherwise they were to be sent to a Social Protection Center. Efforts would be made to ensure that voluntary drop-in centers in Hanoi did not act as a magnet for migrant children in the countryside.⁷²

MOLISA followed up in August by issuing a decision to send street children, beggars, drug addicts, ⁷³ and vagrants to Social Protection Centers in advance of the games. ⁷⁴ The Vietnamese state media publicized the campaign, which was scheduled to start on September 1:

To ensure the success of the campaign… authorities will deploy 20 inspection teams to locate people or beggars who follow foreign tourists trying to sell things or to beg. Order-keeping police in districts will bring together those found and send them to protection centers...⁷⁵

Hanoi residents were encouraged to call the city officials when they spotted homeless people.⁷⁶ Security officials were promised 50,000 dong (U.S.$3) for each homeless person picked up and sent to a center. ⁷⁷ By the end of 2003, government media stated that the campaign, “[using] some rather dramatic solutions to solve the problem,” had removed many children from the streets and sent them home. ⁷⁸

2004: More policies, little action

In February 2004 the prime minister approved Decision 19, described as a “comprehensive strategy” to prevent and solve the situation of street children and other children at risk.⁷⁹ The ambitious decision aimed to reduce the numbers of street children by 90 percent by the year 2010 and provide 70 percent of street children with support for family reintegration.⁸⁰

As with other directives, Decision 19 pushes local officials to focus on numbers, rather than concrete solutions to the underlying problems pushing children onto the streets.

The 2004 annual goals were to reduce the number of street children by 20 percent; child victims of sexual and drug abuse by 5 percent; and children in difficult conditions by 5 percent. In addition, the city of Hanoi planned to move 100 percent of its drug addicts to detoxification centers.

The situation now

In May 2006, a Viet Nam News Agency article announced that Hanoi had “basically wiped out homelessness among children.”⁸¹ According to Children’s Department Chairman Nguyen Dinh Thiet, the campaign owed its success to the “increasing involvement of grass-roots authorities, who contributed in reducing the number of street children and worked on creating jobs for those who returned to their villages.”⁸²

In contrast to the government’s claims, street children, former street children, and people who work with street children in Hanoi told Human Rights Watch in 2006 that the population of street children has not decreased, but only shifted to other parts of the city.

“The kids have left the lake. Some come up to work the streets in tourist areas away from the lake,” said a postcard seller.⁸³ “Many get arrested and sent to Dong Dau or Ba Vi. It has gotten worse in the last two or three months.”

Street children interviewed by Human Rights Watch in March and August 2006 confirmed that high-profile places such as Hoan Kiem lake remain off limits. “If we go near the lake we get arrested,” one shoe shiner told Human Rights Watch in March 2006. “The lake is ‘finished’ as a place for our work.”

A former street child told Human Rights Watch in December 2005: “The situation for street children has not improved since the cleanup campaign for the SEA Games—they have just gone underground.”

Another street vender told us that the police sweeps have continued into 2006. “By the lake we have a lot of problems so not so many people dare to work there now,” he said. “The police are always making trouble for us.” He said that “many more” street vendors were arrested early in 2006 than the previous year, possibly due to the Party Congress in March.⁸⁴

A Vietnamese researcher based in Hanoi told Human Rights Watch in August 2006:

It’s still a huge problem. There are millions of poor farmers in Vietnam who can't afford to feed their children. Those children go to Hanoi. The government has campaigns to clear the cities of street children and beggars. After 2003, some returned to their families, but after a while, many ended up back in the city again. The government was supposed to give the families some incentive to keep those children at home, but the incentive is not enough. So the children return to the city, but to other areas, where they can avoid the police.⁸⁵

Another long-time resident of Hanoi said: “I had thought that all this was quieting down with the South East Asian games now long over,” he said. “But it seems that arrest and arbitrary detention is now the norm.”⁸⁶