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| Regulations on unaccompanied minors travelling by road should be improved to ensure safety for children__Photo: https://tuoitre.vn |
The case of a 13-year-old girl traveling alone across Vietnam by long-distance coach has revealed glaring gaps in the regulation and management of child passengers, both in practice and in law. It underscores the urgent need to refine the legal framework to ensure safety and uphold children’s right to protection.
A journey that raised legal questions
In late July, social media and mainstream outlets were abuzz with reports of a missing 13-year-old girl. After several days of search, her family discovered her in Ho Chi Minh City, where she had managed to complete a cross-country journey by herself on coach.
The incident drew strong public concern not only because it involved the safety of a child but also because it raised serious questions about the legal responsibility of passenger transport companies and the absence of specific safeguards for children in this sector. Once the initial uproar subsided, one question lingered: how could a 13-year-old girl buy tickets, board multiple coaches, and travel across the country without being stopped?
This points not only to weak operational oversight by carriers but also to a deeper legal vacuum surrounding the transport of unaccompanied children.
In aviation, the carriage of children traveling alone has long been subject to strict regulations under both law and airline policy. According to Article 9 of the Ministry of Transport’s Circular 81/2014/TT-BGTVT on air transport and general aviation activities, children are classified as “special passengers.” Airlines must not only provide standard services but also assign staff for direct assistance and set out clear conditions for unaccompanied minors in their carriage contracts and at ticketing offices.
All Vietnamese airlines have adopted specific policies for unaccompanied minors. Vietnam Airlines, for instance, prohibits children aged from two to under 12 from traveling alone. Children aged between 12 and under 15 may travel only with a parental commitment and the airline’s mandatory escort service. Passengers aged 15 and older are treated as adults. Vietjet Air and Bamboo Airways enforce similar rules, requiring parents or guardians to register and pay escort service fees for children aged between 12 and under 15 traveling alone.
Together, these provisions establish a multilayered framework that protects children’s rights under the 2016 Law on Children and aligns with international conventions.
Road passenger transport, however, has no comparable safeguards.
Article 21.3 of the 2015 Civil Code provides that minors aged between full six years and under 15 years may only establish and conduct civil transactions with the consent of their legal representatives, except transactions for daily activities appropriate to their age. Clearly, purchasing an inter-provincial coach ticket does not qualify as such a transaction. Thus, a 13-year-old girl buying a ticket without parental consent constitutes a null and void civil transaction.
In practice, however, tickets were sold, the child boarded, and the journey proceeded. This reveals a significant legal gap: the absence of binding provisions requiring transport operators to verify and control unaccompanied child passengers.
A lawyer’s viewpoint
In a commentary for VnExpress, lawyer Vu Ngoc Bao recalled a conversation with a bus attendant about the case:
“I asked why children could so easily buy tickets. He looked puzzled, then replied: ‘I had never been given clear instructions. Sometimes kids say they are traveling with relatives, or the seller assumes they are with someone already on the bus, so no further questions are asked.’” The driver added: “Once the ticket is sold, our responsibility is to operate coaches safely. We may not refuse transport.”
“This seemingly simple answer exposes a big policy loophole. Staff and drivers are not equipped with the necessary legal knowledge, while they have no regulations to rely on when faced with unaccompanied child passengers. Their ‘bewilderment’ ultimately reflects a lack of systematic safeguards,” the lawyer wrote.
He further noted that drivers have their own reasoning: to transport ticketed passengers safely, not to question whether those passengers are children traveling alone. This reality highlights the absence of explicit regulations in Vietnam’s road passenger transport system.
Even the most recent updates under the 2024 Law on Roads and Government Decree 158/2024/ND-CP on road transport fail to address this issue. They focus on business conditions, vehicle safety, and general responsibilities of drivers and transport companies - without explicit provisions applicable to minors traveling alone. As a result, bus operators lack a legal basis to refuse child passengers. Decisions to allow or deny boarding rest entirely on staff discretion, leaving children vulnerable to abduction, trafficking or other dangers.
In the case of the Hanoian girl, her family was fortunate to locate her quickly. To prevent similar incidents, potentially with far worse outcomes, urgent reforms are needed.
Lawyer Bao made several suggestions.
Firstly, it is necessary to amend passenger transport regulations to set minimum age requirements for unaccompanied travel by coach or train, in line with aviation standards currently applied. Children should be required to carry identification papers and a parental or guardian commitment certified by local authorities. Transport companies must also provide dedicated services for unaccompanied minors.
Secondly, verification of child passengers’ information must be considered a standard part of ticketing and boarding procedures. This is a matter not only of law compliance but also of social responsibility and business ethics of drivers and operators.
Finally, community education campaigns should be launched to provide children, parents and caregivers with communication and safety skills to build an environment where minors can learn and grow without being vulnerable to deception or exploitation.
Article 27 of the 2016 Law on Children states: “Children have the right to be protected against all forms of violence, abandonment or neglect that are likely to harm their all-rounded development.”
The 13-year-old girl was lucky to return home safely. But her journey underscores a troubling reality: children’s right to protection remains inadequately guaranteed. Unless Vietnam closes these legal loopholes and reinforces both law enforcement and social responsibility, future “cross-Vietnam” journeys by children traveling alone might not end as safely.-
