Nghe An: Khmu students drop out of school to dig for gold

(Baonghean.vn) - The gold gas suffocation incident in Quang Nam that killed three Khmu gold miners in Ky Son (Nghe An) has sounded the alarm about the situation of people illegally mining for gold. In Nghe An, many villages are empty of men and women because they have left to mine for gold.

Huoi Cut Village (Yen Na, Tuong Duong) has only 95 houses but there are dozens of gold miners working in mining sites inside and outside the province. Among them are girls as young as 15 or 16 who have left their hometowns to the gold mines to make a living.

In Huoi Cut village today there are only old people and children, most of the young people find ways to make a living everywhere in and outside the province, many of them concentrated in the gold mines of Quang Nam province and the South Central region.

Mr. Lu Van Dung - Secretary of the Huoi Cut village Party cell informed that currently in the village there are 11 young people following gold mining teams in some areas of Nghe An province. These gold diggers are all young people from poor families or because of lack of jobs, they have to find a living at the gold mines.

Among these are girls born between 2000 and 2001 who are working at gold mines in Quang Nam province. Some of them dropped out of school in 7th grade to follow their friends to "push a cart" at gold mines thousands of kilometers away from home.

Women in Yen Na commune illegally dig for gold. Photo: Nguyen Khoa

Mr. Lu Van Minh, a police officer from Huoi Cut village, said: In 2014, when she was only 13 years old and in the 7th grade, Xeo Thi Giang dropped out of school to follow a person from Luong Minh commune to the gold mine in Quang Nam. At the end of 2015, Giang returned home and after the last Tet holiday, she invited a group of 3 friends from the village to go with her. These were all young girls who had just dropped out of school, and were poor and had no jobs, so they "took the road" to work for gold.

From a young age, students in Yen Na have known how to dig for gold. Photo: Nguyen Khoa

In a makeshift thatched house in the middle of the village, Mr. Xeo Van Quyet told about the nearly one year his 20-year-old daughter, Xeo Thi Choi, worked at a gold mine in Quang Nam province. After hearing the news of the death of three Khmu victims on April 12, Mr. Quyet said he would resolutely not let his daughter return there, no matter how poor she was. While Mr. Quyet talked to the guests, Xeo Thi Choi sat with her knees drawn up in the thatched house. Xeo Thi Choi looked nearly ten years older than her 20 years. Uneducated and not knowing the Kinh language, Xeo Thi Choi still followed her friends to "work for gold" in Quang Nam. "She left in 2014 and returned in 2015," Mr. Quyet recalled.

Xeo Thi Choi returned to her hometown with illness after 1 year of working at the gold mine in Quang Nam province.

With her father's interpretation, Xeo Thi Choi said: In mid-2014, a woman named Bao in Luong Minh commune (Tuong Duong) came to "recruit" people to work in gold. Choi asked to go with a group of only women and girls. No one knew the exact destination, only that it was Quang Minh Company in Quang Map area, Quang Nam province. When she entered the gold mine, because she was too weak to push a wheelbarrow, the owner of the gold mine arranged for her to do the laundry and wash the dishes. After a while, she fell ill. Her limbs were swollen from exposure to mercury-contaminated water. After nearly a year, her family had to take her back to her hometown.

“She only brought back 1 million VND. I heard that she got 2 million VND at first, but her friend took 1 million VND for food and travel expenses,” said Mr. Quyet. Nearly a year after returning from the gold mine, the pain still torments the 20-year-old girl with an old face day and night.

Not far from Mr. Quyet’s house is the spacious wooden stilt house of Ms. Vi Thi Phuong. This family also has Cut Thi Thin, born in 2000 (Ms. Phuong’s daughter), who worked for 3 months at a gold mine in Quang Nam. “She was in the middle of 10th grade, spent a cow, then she quit because she didn’t like studying anymore. She followed her friend to Quang Nam for 3 months and then came back.”

Ms. Vi Thi Phuong, mother of Cut Thi Thin, talks about the time her daughter followed her friends to work in gold.

In the wild and poisonous forest, for three months, the only meals were rice, dried fish and wild banana shoots, which the growing girl could not bear. Mrs. Vi Thi Phuong sadly said: "Seeing my child suffer so much, I will not let her go to work for gold anymore." However, because there was no work, she could not stay at home for long, and Thin followed some relatives to work as a construction worker in Bac Giang province.

In addition to young women like Xeo Thi Giang, Cut Thi Thin, Xeo Thi Choi, in Huoi Cut and some villages like Xop Pu, Huoi Xen, there are dozens of people working in gold and ore mines inside and outside the province.

Xop Pu is also another Khmu community in Yen Na commune with a large number of young men and women working at gold mines and ore mines in and outside the province. Mr. Oc Van Hue has a son, Oc Van Chuan, who is working at an ore mine in Quy Hop district. Mr. Hue said, "My nephew told me that the working conditions were very difficult, he had to go down deep into the tunnel to wash the ore. The work was full of disasters, but because there was no job, young men like Chuan had to accept their fate for food and clothing."

Mr. Cut Thai Son, Head of Xop Pu village, said that there are currently over 20 young people working away from home, mainly illegally mining and bandits at gold mines and ore mines. Young people who go to work for gold, but do not see any money, only see many people bring social evils back to their locality. Such as drinking, gambling, drug addiction. And the 3 victims, brothers from Bao Thang (Ky Son) who just died in Quang Nam, were also drug addicts. So this situation has been and is ringing the alarm bell about local labor management and the issue of employment and income in border areas, remote areas of Nghe An.

Huu Vi - Chu Thanh