Nghe An workers in Thailand - Part 1: Gambling for a living

(Baonghean) - In recent years, the number of Nghe An workers going to Thailand to find work has increased. They go, carrying only a passport and spend less than 24 hours traveling by road to reach Thailand; however, the journey to make a living is not easy, because they have to work illegally...

Bac Thinh and Nam Thinh are two hamlets located close to the coast, completely isolated from other residential areas of Nghi Thiet commune (Nghi Loc). The only road along the mountainside into the hamlet was very difficult to travel a few years ago, but now part of it has been concreted, the hamlet is less deserted, people's lives have also improved, flat-roofed houses and newly built, spacious high-rise buildings are increasing day by day. This change is partly due to the money sent back by overseas workers. Among them, hundreds of people have gone to Thailand to work as freelance workers. However, up to this point, Thailand and Vietnam have not signed a labor cooperation agreement, so all of these workers are "illegal" workers, because they come as tourists, and their visas expire, they are illegal residents.

Female workers in Nghi Thiet commune (Nghi Loc) return home after working in Thailand.

Currently, in the two hamlets of Bac Thinh and Nam Thinh alone, there are nearly 100 people working freelance in Thailand, with income, but there are also many pitfalls and risks... Dau Thi Hien and her friends of the same age in Bac Thinh hamlet are the ones who understand this the most. More than 3 years ago, when she had just finished 9th grade, Hien was invited by her older brothers and sisters in the hamlet to go to Thailand to work. Although she was still young and had limited knowledge about the outside world, seeing the "going abroad" Hien was excited to go without realizing the difficulties and hardships. It took more than a day on Highway 8 from Cau Treo Border Gate to Vientiane, Hien completed the procedures to go to Thailand through Noong Khai Border Gate and then stopped first in Udon Thani province. Here, Hien was introduced by a fellow countryman to work as a waiter at a restaurant of an overseas Vietnamese family. After a while, she followed her friends to Bangkok to continue working as a waiter at a Thai restaurant, with a salary of 4-5 million VND/month. Hien said: If you deduct the cost of food and accommodation, it is not much, but this is a job that many Vietnamese people choose, because if there is extra "tips" from customers, it can be about 7-8 million VND/month, or even more. Every day, Hien's busiest time is in the evening because customers often eat late. However, during the day, even if Hien and her fellow countrymen are free, they do not have the opportunity to meet each other much, because they are afraid of being caught by the Thai police when going out.

Since the riots in Thailand, police and military forces have been deployed on every street, and the police pay special attention to Vietnamese people to control illegal labor. If discovered, they will be arrested and sent to prison. If they want to leave, they must pay a ransom, otherwise they will be deported. Hien has been working for about 3 years, and has been "arrested" twice, once in Bangkok, once in Udonthani, the ransom each time was 10 million, the other time 30 million VND. "Usually, the Thai police only search during the day, but both times I was arrested were at night when I was working at a restaurant. They are very smart, when they came in, they were still wearing normal clothes, knowing that Vietnamese workers often do not speak Thai well, so they started a conversation. They asked a few questions that we could not answer and then they "arrested" us. Each time I was detained, I was locked up for 7-9 days. I had to rely on friends and relatives there to ransom me out..." - Hien shared.

In Bac Thinh hamlet, most of the children here only study until grade 9 and then drop out, then either go to the South to apply for jobs in industrial zones, or go to Thailand. Mr. Nguyen Van Chuong - hamlet chief of Bac Thinh hamlet said: "A few years ago, if you wanted to go, you had to go through a broker and it cost about 3-4, even 6-7 million VND. Now, friends and villagers go together and only spend about 1 million VND for tickets and 200,000 VND for passports. Even though they work illegally, their income is higher, so most of them go there together." To work with peace of mind, once a month, workers have to go to Noong Khai or Tha Khet border gate (Laos) to "check" for visas (visa extensions) and then re-enter the country. Those who are luckier and work in big stores and are "paid for" by their boss do not have to go through this procedure. In the past, Vietnamese workers took this requirement quite seriously, but since the entry fee doubled (about 2 million VND) and the long travel distance, most of them have accepted to live illegally. To return home, they sometimes have to pay brokers to take them back by water across the Mekong River, which is extremely dangerous.

Mr. Nguyen Van Thuan in Nam Thinh hamlet said: “I used to go to Udonthani to work. The salary was about 2-3 million VND/month, there were many expenses, and every month I had to renew my visa, which cost a lot of money, so I stopped renewing it. After less than a month, I was arrested by Thai police and deported back to my country.”… Currently, Mr. Thuan’s two children also went to Bangkok to work, the daughter works as a waitress at a restaurant, the son works as a truck driver. However, they are still “illegal” workers, without a labor contract or insurance, so he is worried and restless… With such uncertainty, many workers in Nghi Thiet go to Thailand to work, but they cannot stay for long.

Nguyen Van Ngoc and his mother (Hamlet 6, Nghi Tan Ward, Cua Lo Town) are talking about their working days in Thailand.

In fact, the demand for labor in Thailand is quite large, but not all Vietnamese people who go there can easily find a job, because most of them are unskilled, low-skilled workers, and many have poor discipline. Because they are "illegal", no boss has signed a long-term contract and of course, there is no insurance or labor policy. The situation of Nguyen Van Ngoc (Hamlet 6, Nghi Tan Ward, Cua Lo Town) is one of them. He went to Udonthani with his mother in 2009, when Ngoc was only 17 years old. In the first days in Thailand, Ngoc and his mother were confused about many things, even though they had paid the broker 3 million VND to receive the commitment of "stable job, salary from 5 - 6 million VND/month", but when they arrived, Ngoc found out that it was just a job selling pork at the market, with a salary of less than 2 million VND/month. With the high cost of living in Thailand, that amount of money was not enough for the mother and child to live on day to day. In extreme need, Ngoc had to continue to ask a broker to help her mother get a job as a "maid", while she had to go to many provinces and cities to do all kinds of jobs from selling rice, selling pork, to washing cars, being a painter...

Because she was not fluent in Thai, she was always oppressed. It took her nearly 5 years in Thailand for Ngoc to get used to the terrain, master the language, and apply to work as a car mechanic at a Thai shop, earning a stable income of 10 million VND/month and finding a job for her younger brother. Just when she thought that the hard days in a foreign land would end, a traffic accident occurred, and Ngoc was seriously injured. The car owner who caused the accident fled, but did not dare to hold her responsible because she was an illegal worker. When she was hospitalized, unconscious, Ngoc's mother ran everywhere, even to the Vietnamese Embassy in Thailand to beg for help. Luckily, there were quite a lot of Vietnamese people there, and seeing the pitiful situation of Ngoc and her mother, they donated money to support the hospital fees... Ngoc was discharged from the hospital, dazed and confused, and the mother and daughter had to return home.

In Hung Tay commune (Hung Nguyen), there are also hundreds of people who have gone to work in Thailand, concentrated in hamlets Hung Thinh 1, 2, 3 and Nam Phuc Long. According to local leaders, they just come and go freely, without reporting to the authorities, only when an incident occurs do they ask for confirmation from the local authorities. In fact, many years ago, there were cases of workers going to Thailand to work but because of oppression, labor exploitation, disputes occurred leading to death. After that, this subject had to go to jail... Then there are countless uncertainties in other countries, not to mention if they are unlucky, they are also sexually exploited, exploited to do illegal work...

In Nghe An province, not only in the plain districts but also in some mountainous districts, the movement of working illegally in Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, is quite popular. According to statistics of Con Cuong district, there are currently 85 people working illegally and residing illegally in Thailand and in fact, the trend is increasing (mainly men and women from 15 to 30 years old). Due to the mountainous characteristics, many ethnic groups, difficult life, much free time, limited legal awareness of regulations on working abroad, when hearing people who have worked abroad say that they can earn a lot of money, the work is easy and the procedures are simple, people keep going. They make travel documents to Laos for tourism purposes, and from there go to Thailand to do all kinds of jobs from washing dishes, parking lots, serving in restaurants, tailors, construction workers, maids, etc.

Every month, they go to the border gate between Thailand and Cambodia to get their visa stamped. The person who goes first, familiar with the route and the area, takes the person who goes after them to get a few million dong in commission. There are many cases where the local authorities arrest, detain and send them back to their country because they do not have a passport, or have documents but they are not for the purpose of the visa. The number of Vietnamese women marrying Thai men is relatively large and tends to increase, potentially causing security and order problems. In fact, there have been a number of cases of women being tricked into being sold to Thailand as wives or falling into prostitution... According to Mr. Bui Bac Thai - Permanent Vice President of the Vietnam - Thailand Friendship Association: "In Thailand, there is a relatively large demand for labor, especially domestic help. In Vinh, I have not seen it, but in Ha Tinh, there is a private center with cars running regularly on the Vietnam - Laos route specializing in finding domestic helpers to send to Thailand as family members, then handing them over to a Vietnamese contact there to distribute. There are also quite a lot of people in Nghe An who go in that way." Many illegal workers know that there are risks, but for the sake of making a living, they are still willing to gamble with their fate in the hope of finding a job with a high income in a foreign country.

(To be continued)

Khanh Ly - My Ha