A corner of Sa Pa town.
This is one of the local solutions being implemented to prevent and stop the situation of children clinging to and soliciting tourists.
Difficult problem to eliminate
"Buy for me, buy for me," a group of girls around 6-10 years old carrying younger siblings on their backs, holding out their hands with brocade bags and key chains, begged tourists. Many tourists shook their heads and refused, but the girls still followed, holding out souvenirs and repeating the phrase "buy for me".
Children dressed as ethnic minorities approach tourists to solicit their purchases.
This is a common sight in the Sa Pa National Tourist Area. This situation occurs more or less depending on the time of the week, weekdays or holidays, Tet, the location with many or few tourists, the presence of authorities or not...
On the crowded Thach Son street, a little girl carrying a younger sibling after asking for money from some diners in a restaurant ran across the street towards a woman holding an umbrella, standing at the base of a tree about 20 meters from the restaurant.
"After giving the girl money and seeing the image of the woman, I guessed it was her mother, receiving the money and then pushing the girl under her feet, urging her to go back and continue asking for money from customers, I felt extremely upset and hurt," said Ms. Kieu Le, a tourist from Ho Chi Minh City.
Even though the sign "Do not give money to street children or beggars. Do not buy from people who solicit or stalk" is right in front of them, many people still feel sorry. "There is a child carrying a baby only a few months old, looking very pitiful. If you do not buy anything, the children will solicit you very annoyingly," said Mr. Quoc Toan (a tourist from Da Nang).
Children dressed as ethnic minorities approach tourists to solicit their purchases.
A driver of an electric car who regularly takes tourists to tourist attractions said that on the bus, he often tells people not to buy goods or give money to children. However, many tourists still give money because they feel sorry for the children. In particular, there are tourists who generously give large denominations from 500,000 VND to 1 million VND.
Sa Pa Town's Department of Culture and Information said that recently, the situation of soliciting, stalking, street vending and begging in the area has tended to increase again. According to statistics, on weekends, in the town center, there are about 90 children and 40 adults who solicit tourists and beg (an increase of more than 40% compared to the period from March 10 to April 24, 2023).
The number of street vendors in the town is mainly concentrated in areas with many tourists such as: tennis courts, Stone Church, old bus station area, around the lake, Van Hoa park... They come from the communes and wards of Trung Chai, Hoang Lien, Muong Hoa, Ta Van, Cau May.
According to the authorities, it is easy to see that if tourists coming to Sa Pa still give money and buy goods from children, when adults earn money by exploiting children as is happening in reality, this problem will be very difficult to completely eliminate.
Need consent from tourists
Sa Pa City Party Secretary Phan Dang Toan said that according to statistics, in 2015, there were about 600 ethnic minority women in the area who regularly went to the central area or places where customers gathered to pull rickshaws and sell goods on the street.
Children dressed as ethnic minorities approach tourists to solicit their purchases.
After many efforts to promote, mobilize and support new livelihood solutions such as vocational training - job introduction, stable sales seating arrangement, loans for tourism or agricultural development... by 2019, the number of people dropped to only about 100 people. However, since tourism recovered after COVID-19, the activities of soliciting and stalking customers have become increasingly complicated.
Faced with that situation, from the beginning of 2023, the Sa Pa Town Party Committee decided to establish a Steering Committee to address the situation of soliciting, stalking and begging in the town - directly assigning a Standing Member of the Town Party Committee as Head of the Steering Committee; a Vice Chairman of the Town People's Committee as Deputy Head of the Standing Committee.
Thereby mobilizing the entire political system to take action with the goal of fundamentally solving the problem of soliciting, stalking and begging in the town by the end of 2023.
The Steering Committee organized investigations and screening to grasp the identities and family circumstances of the subjects; arranged forces to meet each subject to propagate and mobilize, and at the same time learn about their livelihood needs in order to provide solutions to support sustainable livelihoods.
Accordingly, for the cooperation subjects, the Steering Committee assigned specialized departments and People's Committees of communes to create job opportunities according to demand; at the same time, directly mobilized 140 cases to sign a commitment not to participate in soliciting, stalking, or begging; and made records to send two cases to the provincial protection center.
After many times of propaganda and mobilization, the subject has just proposed a sustainable alternative livelihood solution but still deliberately brought his children to the central area to sell goods and beg, the Town Steering Committee has directed the police force and relevant agencies to make a record, and at the same time, based on the level of violation, handle it according to regulations.
In which, the forces drew up a record and issued a decision to fine a violation of 22 million VND for one case.
Sa Pa City Party Committee directed the propaganda agency to strengthen communication activities to tourism businesses and all visitors to Sa Pa to actively cooperate with the town by not buying goods or using services from solicitors and stalkers; not giving money and gifts to street children and beggars.
Business establishments do not allow individuals to enter their premises to solicit, stalk, or beg, disturbing tourists.
The Secretary of the Sa Pa City Party Committee affirmed that strictly handling those who intentionally abuse children for personal gain will be something the locality needs to resolutely implement in the coming time, because this is an important solution in protecting the legitimate and legal rights of children.
"I call on the people and tourists to continue to agree and support Sa Pa in this issue to build the brand of the National Tourist Area not only clean and beautiful but also civilized, friendly and hospitable," the Sa Pa City Party Secretary emphasized.
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