The escape from the 'hell on earth' of Nghe An gold miners

(Baonghean.vn) -The reason why gold mines are called "hell on earth" is because gold miners are often beaten, work in dangerous environments, and have poor food.… In the past two years, gold miners have continuously crossed the forest, traveling dozens of kilometers to escape.

The latest incident was on April 28, due to being exploited for labor, two young gold miners, Mong Thi Khat (16 years old) and Lo Thi Xi (15 years old), both residing in Phia Kham 2 village, Bac Ly commune, Ky Son district, Nghe An, trekked through the forest for 6 hours to reach Nam Giang district police station in Quang Nam province to ask for help. After taking their statements, Quang Nam provincial police provided transportation money to take the two children home.

Xi and Khat at the police station.

When asked about the reason for coming here, the two children said that they were tricked by a woman into coming here to do “easy work with high salary”. Believing her words, they both left their hometown and followed her to Phuoc Thanh commune, Phuoc Son district, Quang Nam province two months ago. When they arrived, they were taken to work at a gold mine owned by Phuoc Minh Company Limited, owned by Mr. Ngo Van Quang.

“Here, we were forced to work hard and were often beaten. Unable to bear the hard labor and exhaustion at the gold mine, we discussed ways to escape. We took advantage of the moment of distraction and ran away through the forest,” Khat and Xi told the Nam Giang District Police. The two boys also revealed that there were dozens of gold miners of the same age in the gold mine who were also forced to work hard and had not been able to escape.

Colonel Nguyen Gioi, Chief of Phuoc Son District Police, Quang Nam Province, said that after receiving the two children, the unit handed them over to the provincial police for investigation. “Regarding the two children’s statement that there were many child laborers in this gold mine, we sent officers to coordinate with the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to check here. Up to now, the group has not returned to report the results. If child labor is discovered, we will handle it strictly.

Considered the gold capital of the country, the mountainous districts of Quang Nam seem to have gold everywhere. Photo:Tien Hung

Meanwhile, Colonel Nguyen The Nghiep, Head of the Criminal Police Department (PC45, Quang Nam Provincial Police), said that, based on the information obtained by the detectives, the statements of these two children were baseless. “The two children followed their parents in and begged them to let them work. Working in the forest and mountains was really hard work, and they got bored and ran away from their parents to go home.”

Considered the gold capital of Quang Nam province, this is not the first time gold miners have escaped from their workplace. In early April 2014, a group of about 100 young men from the western Nghe An province trekked through the forest and walked for nearly a day to escape from the gold mine, also owned by Phuoc Minh Company Limited. They were gold miners of the Kho Mu ethnic group, walking more than 50 km to reach Kham Duc town. Along the way, the gold miners shouted loudly, “brothers, we are free, let’s go home together when we are hungry…”

“They didn’t pay our monthly salaries, some of us were owed salaries from last year. We were hiding like this, and when the guards caught us, they beat us and left us bedridden. Working in a tunnel thousands of meters deep without a respirator, many of us fainted. We only ate leftovers,” said one of the gold miners who escaped at that time.

More than a month after the escape of hundreds of gold miners that caused chaos in Phuoc Son district, claiming that the workplace was “hell on earth”, four teenagers of the Kho Mu ethnic group from Ky Son district (Nghe An), also escaped from the gold mine of this company. The four boys, including Seo Van Vieng, Cut Van May, Cut Van Tuot and Cut Buon Huong, were only 15-16 years old at that time. They walked through the forest for 4 days and nights to reach Kham Duc town.

Two students, Cut Van May and Seo Van Vieng. Photo:Tien Hung

Vieng said that 3 months ago, he and May were brought by a broker to the gold mine in Phuoc Thanh commune to work for Phuoc Minh company. On that trip, there were dozens of other child laborers and a few escaped because they could not stand it. “We worked 11 hours a day, they said we would be paid 2.5 million VND/month but we had to work for 6 months to receive the money. Working in deep tunnels, we were constantly sick but they kept forcing us to get up and go to work. Our daily meals consisted only of dried fish,” Vieng complained.

Unable to bear the harsh working environment, at 2am on May 18, while the whole camp was still sleeping, the four of them ran away from the gold mine. It was not until dawn on May 22 that they reached Kham Duc town. “We just kept running. We slept in the forest for two nights, and the rest of the time we kept walking. We were so hungry that we pulled up cassava that people had planted, then picked leaves from forest trees to eat to survive. Then we kept running…”, May recalled. After arriving in town and staying at a local’s house for a few days to wait to return home, the group of four gold miners were later discovered by the company and escorted back to the gold mine.

Mr. Nguyen Manh Ha, Chairman of the People's Committee of Phuoc Son District, Quang Nam Province, said that the district could not count how many gold miners were working there, but most of them were from Nghe An. Due to the illegal use of labor, the owners of the gold mines did not register their temporary residence, so the exact number was not known. After receiving complaints, the authorities repeatedly tried to crack down and inspect the use of child labor at the gold mines, but were unsuccessful. "They already knew before we even got to the mines. At that time, illegal and underage workers would be hidden. It was very difficult to control," said Mr. Ha.

About 100 gold miners from Nghe An escaped in April 2014.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ngo Van Quang, Director of Phuoc Minh Gold Company, said that there was no such thing as gold diggers being beaten. “Last year, my subordinates beat gold diggers once, but after that, I thoroughly investigated and it never happened again. The life of gold diggers here is very good, there is no exploitation at all. If I do something wrong, I will take responsibility.” Mr. Quang also added that there are many workers from mountainous districts of Nghe An province, and he does not understand why gold diggers run away. “If anyone asks for leave, I let them go home. They just leave when they want to go, and then someone invites their son-in-law to go work elsewhere. Besides, if I do not satisfy them, they will leave too.”

In the case of Khat and Xi, Mr. Quang said that these two children "are 19 or 20 years old and were not born in 2000".

The escapes from the “hell on earth” of Nghe An gold miners show that the management of illegal gold mining in this province has become a “chronic disease,” leaving behind many shortcomings and inadequacies such as mining causing environmental pollution, causing public outrage, and negative impacts on the tourist landscape….

Hung Nguyen