More than 24,000 foreign people are working without permits in Vietnam, said Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Pham Thi Hai Chuyen in a recent report.
Reports, covering the whole nation, showed that by July 2012, there were over 77,000 foreign people working in Vietnam, of whom 74,400 workers were required to have work permits. However, only about 50,000 have them, while 24,400 others are still working without permit.
Foreign workers come from many nations, but 58% of them are from Asian countries including China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan and 28.5% from European countries. Male workers make up for 89.9% of the total foreign labours in the country.
According Minister Chuyen, some localities have not collected accurate information on the issue. Data from these areas had to be estimated on an inspection of the issuance of work permits.
“In fact we have found out that many people come into the country with business visas and leave every three or six months only to return," she said.Chuyen said that both local companies and foreign workers deliberately ignore the laws, but the punishments for these violations is too light to deter such violations.
The minister proposed to intensify the instruction and inspection of the regulations on employing better oversight of foreign workers and stricter of punishments for violators.
