Glitter case just one example of growing problem
Gary Glitter's child-sex conviction is just one high-profile example of a growing trend of sex tourism in Vietnam, experts warn.
The former British glam rocker was sentenced in March to three years in a Vietnamese jail for obscene acts with children in the southern resort city of Vung Tau. The case continues to draw worldwide media attention, with Glitter's appeal set to be heard this month in Ho Chi Minh City.
But children's rights groups say there's a broader, growing problem with child-sex tourism and underage prostitution in Vietnam that still rarely makes the international radar screen.
The syndrome is widely attributed to a combination of factors: poverty, fast-rising tourism, ineffective law enforcement, and a society where child-sex exploitation is not as well understood or as reviled as elsewhere.
While child-sex tourism has long been a well-known issue in other Southeast Asian countries, its emergence in Vietnam coincided with the former pariah state's international integration. In a country where foreign tourism was virtually non-existent as recently as 15 years ago, tourist arrivals in Vietnam reached 3.5 million in 2005, up 18.4 per cent from the previous year.
'This is quite a new phenomenon here and in general the public is not quite aware of it,' said Le Hong Loan, head of Unicef's child protection division in Hanoi. 'Even the police do not have the experience or training to deal with these cases.'