37,000 foreign workers working illegally in Vietnam

Employers are trying to find ways to "circumvent the law" and massively bring workers into our country, while the management of the authorities is "problematic".

On the morning of August 21, during the question-and-answer session with the Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs at the 10th session of the National Assembly Standing Committee, the issue that National Assembly deputies were particularly concerned about was the management of foreign workers working in Vietnam. Recently, a series of violations related to foreigners working illegally in our country have been discovered in our country. This is an issue that has caused public outrage, and the deputies also requested clarification of the data and responsibilities of relevant ministries, as well as the need to propose solutions to this problem.

Minister Pham Thi Hai Chuyen

According to Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Pham Thi Hai Chuyen, the Ministry has delegated authority to the Departments to register foreign workers according to their authority (based on health, suitable occupation, relatives, etc.), and will grant permits for foreign workers to work for more than 3 months. As for the case of working for less than 3 months, the labor sector requires employers to notify the Department of Labor 7 days in advance. However, implementation is not strict, many employers "massively" send workers to Vietnam without declaration, while many localities show signs of covering up and condoning businesses.

Delegate Bui Si Loi, Vice Chairman of the Committee on Social Affairs, said that through monitoring, it was found that many localities did not know the exact number of foreign workers in the area. Mr. Loi said that the specific numbers were well known to the police force of wards and communes, but at higher levels, the numbers were not fully collected and the reports were inaccurate.

Delegates emphasized that the current management of foreign workers is still very loose, so only when a case is exposed - like the death at Maria Clinic in Hanoi, do the authorities get involved, or when thousands of Chinese workers are operating illegally in the Central Highlands.

Chinese people still illegally raise fish in rafts in Vung Ro (Photo: TNO)

Mr. To Lam, Deputy Minister of Public Security, said that according to statistics obtained by the police force, there are currently 78,440 foreigners working in Vietnam, an increase of 6% compared to 2011, of which 41,529 are licensed to work, 5,581 are not licensed, and 31,330 are not licensed (accounting for 39.9%) - this number is considered illegal.

These workers come from about 60 countries around the world, of which Asian countries such as China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan account for about 58%. Those with university and post-graduate degrees account for 48.3%, those with professional and technical certificates account for 34.6%, men account for 89.9%, and those aged 30 and over account for 86%...

The management of foreign workers in Vietnam in recent times has had many shortcomings. According to Mr. To Lam, the reason is primarily due to the "race" with projects, especially those won by foreign bidders, so they bring a large number of foreigners to work in Vietnam. In addition, foreign workers enter Vietnam through tourism, then switch to working without permission (this number accounts for about 40%)... Most of these subjects violate the laws of residence, visa...

However, for the police, handling it is extremely difficult. “If we put them in a management center, we will not have the budget. Or bringing them back to the country will also face difficulties in management and buying plane tickets; some illegal workers in Africa do not even have an embassy in Vietnam,” said Mr. To Lam.

According to Mr. To Lam, to manage foreigners in general and illegal workers in particular, we have issued and amended many documents, creating a legal corridor for this issue. However, the implementation has not been really serious; the coordination between agencies and departments is not really synchronous, the documents still have many loopholes and inadequacies for foreigners to take advantage of "circumventing the law" and the competent authorities are confused.

Explaining the fact that “at the grassroots level, it can be managed, but at the higher levels, it cannot”, Deputy Minister To Lam said that the reason is due to the decentralization of management of the police force at all levels. Therefore, the police force has recently fought and promptly prevented foreign criminals in Vietnam, such as cyber criminals, criminal gangs, and internationally wanted criminals from entering Vietnam through tourism...

However, delegate Loi "turned back" on the Deputy Minister of Public Security when he said that the numbers about foreigners that the police knew and reported were not accurate. According to Mr. Loi, the actual number of unskilled workers and workers without technical qualifications is much higher.

The reason comes from two problems, which are the “loopholes” in the law when we stipulate that foreigners aged 18 and over can enter Vietnam. “How can someone at 18 years old graduate from university, have high skills and meet job requirements?”, Mr. Loi explained. Besides, management is also “problematic”, because typically, like the incident that happened at the Maria clinic in Hanoi, Chinese “doctors” “left” without us knowing.

To improve the quality of foreign labor management, Ms. Pham Thi Hai Chuyen said that she will continue to improve legal regulations related to foreign labor working in Vietnam, including submitting to the Government a Decree guiding the Labor Code (effective from May 1, 2013)./.

According to (vov.vn) - LT