Ensuring Justice for Vietnamese Child Victims of Human Trafficking: Lessons from the United Kingdom

Children are a particularly vulnerable group in the global flow of human trafficking and face persistent barriers in accessing justice. This article examines how the United Kingdom (UK) ensures justice for Vietnamese child victims of human trafficking through a three-pillar framework on access to justice: the legal protection framework, the institutional framework, and the capacity to provide and demand effective remedies. Employing a qualitative single-case-study design based on documentary analysis of international human rights instruments, UK legislation, official statistics, policy documents, and peer-reviewed research, the article argues that a progressive legal framework alone does not guarantee substantive access to justice: whether justice is realized depends on the interaction of all three pillars. Framed in rights terms, the failure runs through a sequence of guarantees: the child’s right to be recognized as a victim rather than an offender, their right to be heard in the decisions that follow, and their right to an effective remedy once the harm is done. The UK case, in which a highly developed legal and institutional framework coexists with documented protection failures affecting Vietnamese children, reveals where the gap between formal legal guarantees and substantive justice opens up. On this basis, and with explicit attention to the differences in legal tradition, resources, and institutional structure between the two countries, the article draws policy lessons for Vietnam in implementing its 2024 Law on Prevention and Combat of Human Trafficking.