Police in Vietnam's southern province of Tay Ninh said they have fined two Vietnamese for illegally brokering marriage for foreigners.

Nguyen Thi Thuy, 28, and Khong Anh Viet, 30, were caught arranging for three Chinese men to meet two Vietnamese women on Thursday in Thuy's guest house in Tan Bien District bordering Cambodia, 120 kilometers (75 miles) northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.

The brokers are in the police station. Photo by VnExpress/Hong Tuyet

Viet later told the police that his relatives in China often bring Chinese men to Vietnam to search for Vietnamese wives and his job was to arrange for them to meet with women who want to marry foreigners.

Each Chinese man would have to pay Viet 30,000 Chinese yuan ($4,400), of which VND30 million would go to the chosen woman's family and VND10 million paid to Thuy. Viet would then help complete paperwork for the marriage.

An offender of illegal brokering marriage is subject to fines for administrative violations of between VND10 million and VND20 million in Vietnam.

China suffers from one of the worst gender imbalances in the world as families prefer boys to girls. As a result, millions of men now cannot find Chinese brides. Many of them resort to looking for foreign women, including Vietnamese. There are also many women in China's southern neighbor country who wish to marry a foreign husband in hopes for a better life, resulting in thousands of marriages between Vietnamese women and foreign men every year.

While legal centers for marriage brokering with foreigners exist, most such marriages are arranged through illegal channels, according to Phu Nu newspaper. Many Vietnamese have ended up with abusive husbands, or fell victim to human trafficking.