Management of Vietnamese Guest Workers Promoted

The Government has recently proposed the National Assembly Standing Committee to allow it to take measures on promoting the management of Vietnamese guest workers. Minister of Labour, War Invalid and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Hang had an interview with the press about the issue.

Why is the number of Vietnamese guest workers terminating their contracts to live and work illegally in foreign countries often high?

Since 1999, has sent around 300,000 guest workers to foreign countries, bringing the total number of Vietnamese guest workers in foreign countries to around 400,000 people. Apart from the traditional markets of , the Republic of Korea , and the Middle East , in recent years, has expanded its markets in , the and . However, alongside their achievement, some Vietnamese guest workers have broken their contracts to live and work illegally in foreign countries.  This has become an urgent issue, producing a negative impact on the protection of guest workersrsquo; interest and the efforts to expand markets in , the Republic of Korea , and the . Statistic figures show that the number of Vietnamese runaway workers is much higher than other countries. The number of Vietnamese runaway workers accounts for between 30 and 40 per cent in , between 25 and 30 per cent in the Republic of Korea and over nine per cent in . In 2003, for example, the number of Vietnamese runaway workers in accounted for 34.1 per cent of the total number present. The figure was put at 1.02 per cent for , 5.58 per cent for , 1.06 per cent for the and 1.13 per cent for .

Why has the situation become worse even though has supplemented policies on the management of guest workers?

The Government has understood that a long-term measure is to build a law on labour export. However, in the short term, the Government will issue a decree to stipulate responsibility of labour export enterprises, guest workers and relevant agencies. Accordingly, strong administrative measures will be applied to organisations and individuals who violate the regulations in order to develop foreign markets, increase the number and quality of guest workers, protecting the short-term and long-term interest of guest workers.

What are those measures?

The 2002 Ordinance on Settlement of Administrative Violation stipulates two fines, including warning and pecuniary penalty. The Government has proposed to supplement another penalty - 'forced to return home' - which will be applied to guest workers. Warning and pecuniary penalties will be applied for those enterprises which violate the regulations. If the lsquo;forced to return homersquo; penalty is not added, there will not be enough legal basis to settle the problem, minimising the number of runaway workers in foreign countries.

It seems impossible to penalise runaway workers. Is the regulation feasible?

As guest workers commit violations in foreign countries, so the taking of minutes on administrative violations is allowed in their absence. This is conducted on a basis of official announcements made by authorised agencies of foreign countries where runaway workers work or are employed. The regulation aims to ensure basic citizenship rights of runaway workers and will serve as evidence for later settlement.

As workers have run away, it is impossible to send penalty decisions directly to them. Therefore, decisions will be sent to those who guarantee runaway workers and departments of labour, war invalid and social affairs of localities where runaway workers lived before going to work abroad, the Department on Guest Worker Management and will be listed in representative offices of in foreign countries. Those who guarantee runaway workers will have to inform runaway workers of the penalties, so that they will be able to observe the penalty decisions. We believe that this regulation will ensure that runaway workers will be informed of their penalties and there will be enough time for them to observe their penalty decisions.

Is there any expansion of power to penalise runaway workers?

The Government has proposed to add powers to penalise runaway workers to heads of the diplomatic missions and consuls in . Accordingly, these people will have a power to force runaway workers to return home. This regulation is compliant with the existing legal system. At the same time, the head of the Department of Guest Worker Management is proposed to be given with power to penalise violations of labour export enterprises. This will promote responsibility of enterprises for the interest of guest workers, thus helping to protect their interests even when encounter problems or have to return home ahead of the schedule.

• P.V