Rising numbers of runaway Vietnamese workers in foreign countries have hindered the country’s labour exports, especially to South Korea, one official has said.
Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Pham Thi Hai Chuyen said illegal workers hinder Vietnam’s labour exports
Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Pham Thi Hai Chuyen, said that Vietnam and South Korean signed an agreement in 2004 to allow Vietnam to send workers to South Korea under the Employment Permit System (EPS) programme. To date, nearly, 70,000 Vietnamese workers have been sent to work in the country.However, there has been recent sharp rise in the number of Vietnamese workers who finish their contracts but illicitly overstay in South Korea.
Since early 2012, the number of such workers has accounted for around 50% of the total number of those who have to return home due to the end of their labour contracts. The figure is much higher than the rate of 21% among other countries that send workers to South Korea, Chuyen attributed.
In order to deal with the problem, South Korea has recently stopped receiving workers from Vietnam. They have not yet extended the agreement on labour co-operation which expired in September 2012.
Meanwhile, the Vietnamese government has been taking several measures since 2011, including intensifying the education of people on the consequences of runaway workers, changing methods of labour selection, enhancing the quality of language training and training workers in overseas working regulations.
They have also co-ordinated with South Korean agencies to improve awareness of Vietnamese workers in the country, especially those whose contracts are soon to expire, Chuyen shared.
In August 2012, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs has held a meeting on labour co-operation with South Korea in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan. He requested localities with larger number of workers with expired contracts in South Korea to step up education so as to prevent possible absconding.
The ministry is collaborating with the Vietnam Veterans Association, the Vietnam Farmers Association and the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union and local authorities to boost education on the issue as well as set up consulting groups in localities with large number of workers in South Korea.
Apart from those measures, the ministry will study and apply some more new methods such as issuing new policies including deposits guaranteeing overseas workers in South Korea.
They will require them to make commitments to comply with overseas labour regulations and will propose South Korea to strictly punish violators.
In the time to come, the ministry will continue to request some localities to halt labour exports from districts with large number of runaway workers. It may propose the government to apply a halt in some provinces as well.
Despite assumptions that Vietnamese overseas workers have to pay an initial fee of VND300 million (USD14,375) to complete procedures to work abroad in South Korea this was not the case. Many workers are relatively low paid and are just able to pay off their debts when they finish their contracts. This has forced them to try to illegally overstay in the country to work to support their families.
However, Chuyen said this was just an excuse given by runaway workers. Under the EPS programme, workers have to pay only USD630 to complete procedures before their leave Vietnam, plus USD500 to buy insurance in South Korea.
