In Vietnam, experts and advocates are working to end human trafficking within the decade

 “Do you understand the pressure on my chest… the pain I feel?” Xuân questions her social worker. “I am truly suffering.”

On the surface, Xuân, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, might appear ordinary, but invisible scars cut deep. She’s haunted by trauma and always braced for danger. Exhaustion seeps into her bones while the grip of withdrawal claws at her body.

In 2023, Xuân was enslaved. For two years, she endured relentless rape, beatings, and was forced to take drugs to bind her into submission. Now back in Vietnam, she is physically safe, but it will take time for the psychological wounds to heal. Xuân is incapable of relaxing, and she views everything—and everyone—as a potential threat.

“We are very cautious when working with clients with a traumatic history,” says Trần Thị Trà My, the psychology department manager at Blue Dragon, the charity that rescued Xuân in early 2025. Blue Dragon, a partner of the Intrepid Foundation, was founded in 2004 to provide shelter and education for street children in Hanoi. The organization has since grown to become a major advocate for victims of human trafficking.

Trà My, dressed in a loose blazer, framed by oversized glasses, and softened by a broad smile, carries a calm professionalism. Born in Vinh, a lowland city almost 300 kilometers south of Hanoi, she came to the capital to study social work. She then specialized in mental health for her master’s degree in the United States. After returning to Vietnam, Trà My joined Blue Dragon, where she’s been working for six years.

“We have social workers, psychologists, carers, lawyers, educators—and all of them work together to make sure the clients are stabilized,” explains Trà My. “Sometimes all we can do at first is play with them; make it clear that we are safe and predictable. Only when the client feels stable can we revisit traumatic memories without them being triggered.”

“I feel like I’m alive again.”

- Xuân, human trafficking survivor.

Xuân, a single mother from Vietnam’s northern mountains, had a lot of trauma to work through. Employment opportunities in remote rural Vietnam are scarce, so in 2023 a neighbor floated the idea of a temporary job in Laos. Desperate to provide for her two young sons, Xuân agreed, leaving the boys at home with her mother-in-law.

The promise dissolved the moment Xuân landed in Laos. Sold and resold between brothels, she was eventually trafficked to Myanmar, a country ravaged by civil war. At one point Xuân suffered a miscarriage that threatened her life, and was given just days to recover before her captors forced her back to work. Every enslaver inflicted the same brutality. The cycle seemed hopeless—until she found a phone.

Xuân secretly called the Vietnamese emergency services, who turned to Blue Dragon, and together they mounted a rescue. “There’s always some point during the trafficking experience where [the trafficked person] is able to get hold of a phone, whether it’s within the first few days, the first few months, or the first few years,” says Blue Dragon Co-CEO Skye Maconachie, dressed in a loose, flower-flecked summer dress. An Australian who has been with Blue Dragon since its inception, Maconachie knows how to navigate Vietnam’s complex social challenges—and Hanoi’s sweltering heat.

Vietnamese people reach out to a loved one—usually their mother—if they know their number, says Maconachie, but if not they call Vietnam’s emergency services. In either case, the message gets through to the authorities, who for years have called upon the expertise of Blue Dragon to assist in rescue operations. Once informed, the team assesses the situation and begins exploring the feasibility of a rescue mission.

In Xuân’s case, liberation was extraordinarily complex. After breaking Xuân free from her captors, she and the rescue team embarked on a multi-day journey through the Southeast Asian highlands. On foot, they pushed through the jungle, climbed over hills, and camped away from towns and main roads to hide from malignant eyes. Only when safe, they travelled by small boat down rivers and on motorbikes along backroads. After five arduous days, Xuân was back on Vietnamese soil.

“I feel like I’m alive again,” Xuân said after crossing the border. Soon after, she was reunited with her sons, now six and nine, and her healing process began.

“Our work on the front line helps us to grasp the issue,” says Maconachie, “but also build the solution.”

Blue Dragon has ambitions to end human trafficking in Vietnam using its ‘whole stream’ strategy. Downstream, Blue Dragon responds directly to crises, rescuing people in danger and providing care. Xuân is one of more than 1800 people that the charity has rescued to date. Upstream, they tackle the root causes of exploitation, addressing the vulnerabilities that put communities at risk, like pushing for legal change.

Central to the whole stream approach is their Hanoi children’s center, a bustling, sprawling, multi-floor complex. It’s a space for vulnerable kids to receive a warm meal and a hot shower, or perhaps join a hip-hop dance session or an art class. Lê Ngọc Khoa is one of dozens of people that helps run the center. “If anyone asks, say I’m a social worker,” he jokes.

“In rural villages we work at a local level with police, teachers, and community leaders to set up anti-trafficking boards.”

- Skye Maconachie, Co-CEO, Blue Dragon Children's Foundation

Sporting a flat cap perched above a toothy grin, Khoa radiates the playful confidence required to connect with young people. He was born in Hanoi and has spent 14 years at Blue Dragon, beginning as an intern straight after finishing his social work degree. “My job is to focus on prevention. It’s about teaching kids the skills they need to not become victims.”

Central to Khoa’s job is building confidence through creative activities, from dance to drama. He’s seen that when kids indulge their passions, they develop stronger relationships with themselves and others, but also critical thinking skills. Khoa has seen first-hand how guiding vulnerable kids towards self-belief creates safer, brighter futures. The center in Hanoi has proved so successful that Blue Dragon is opening a second in Ho Chi Minh City later in 2025.

While children’s centers can help fight human trafficking in the cities, building safer communities in rural areas, like where Xuân is from, requires a different approach, says Maconachie. “In rural villages we work at a local level with police, teachers, and community leaders to set up anti-trafficking boards.”

These boards learn how to monitor people in the community that might be at risk, such as those who are under financial stress. This acts as an early-warning system, says Maconachie, empowering communities to act before people are trafficked.

The whole stream approach has helped build systems that don’t even involve Blue Dragon. Recently, word got back to Maconachie about a human trafficking case that never happened. In a northern village, two girls were lured into a stranger’s car with promises of lucrative summer jobs. A local anti-trafficking board member spotted it, called the police, and the car was apprehended. The girls were freed and the abductor is under investigation. “That’s the whole stream really working,” says Maconachie.

Blue Dragon has analyzed the data, tracked the trajectory of human trafficking in Vietnam, and set an ambitious goal: to end it by 2032. When encouraging stories like this one filter back, that vision feels closer than ever.

You can support the work of Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation by donating directly.

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