Vietnam has more than 30,000 prostitutes, according to latest reports.

Most notably, the prostitutes are getting younger. Up to 42 percent of them age from 18 to 25, 15.3 percent from 16-18 years old and 35 percent from 25 to 35 years old.

According to a conference reviewing efforts to combat prostitution between 2006 and 2010 on September 28, police have detected over 4,200 cases, arresting nearly 18,000 prostitutes, pimps and madams during this period.

As many as 2,812 cases and 3,682 defendants were brought to court, while 1,407 cases were fined. More than 5000 prostitutes were sent to rehabilitation centres.

Police have discovered many rings that sell Vietnamese women to Macau, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Cambodia plus some high-class prostitution rings in HCM City.

The head of the Agency for Combating Social Evils, Nguyen Van Minh, commented that prostitution via Internet and mobile phone has boomed. Many websites advertising prostitution have also appeared.

PV