The pain of illegal labor export in Tuong Duong

(Baonghean) - Labor export is considered by Tuong Duong district as one of the important solutions to achieve the goal of hunger eradication and poverty reduction. However, the implementation of this work is facing many difficulties, while the number of workers going to work abroad through unofficial channels is increasing...

Last school year, Luu Kien Secondary School (Tuong Duong) had 2 8th grade students drop out of school both for the reason of... going abroad to work; that was the case of Lo Van Diep and Vi Manh Dat. And according to the exchange of teacher Nguyen Thi Nhung - Vice Principal of the school, almost every year the school has students dropping out of school for the reason of looking for work in the South. However, in reality, most of the students listen to the invitation of adults to go work abroad.

Women's cadres of Tam Quang commune (Tuong Duong) talk with workers who were tricked into returning from China.

In Luu Kien commune, up to now, there are more than 200 workers working in Laos, Thailand and China. In addition to students still in school, there are quite a number of young people and women of working age. The main form is to go on the tourist route (Laos, Thailand) or illegally go to China by road. Recently, many freelance workers residing illegally in Thailand and China have been arrested and taken advantage of by employers without paying wages, but even so, the number of people going to work far away is still increasing.

Mr. Vi Van M (Luu Phong village), one of those who just returned from China, said: “Over there (in China), many Vietnamese workers have to live illegally because they do not have valid documents. I myself was deceived by my employer, who deliberately called the police to arrest me so that I would not be paid. However, if I am lucky, working abroad is still better because the income is higher than at home.”

Mr. La Van Bong - Vice Chairman of Luu Kien commune added: "Because of difficult economic conditions and lack of jobs, people in the commune have to go elsewhere to make a living. However, most of them are following the illegal path. People are not interested in the official path because of the time

Many young workers are redundant in mountainous districts - Photo: Xuan Hoang.

Some people have gone there but they found the results were not high; the loan procedures were complicated...".

Tuong Duong is one of three districts benefiting from the "Project to support poor districts to promote labor export to contribute to sustainable poverty reduction in the period 2009 - 2020" according to Decision No. 71/2009/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister. However, after more than 5 years of implementation, the number of workers following this program is very low, an average of 33 workers/year, equal to 33% of the project target (the planned target is 100 workers/district/year). In the first 6 months of 2016 alone, the entire Tuong Duong district only had 12 people going to work abroad in Arab countries. This number, if compared with 1,506 people who are following the free path to work abroad in the first 6 months of 2016, is very small.

Mr. Lo Thanh Nhat - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Tuong Duong district also admitted: The district and its departments and branches have both promoted propaganda on labor export and had their own projects on improving the quality and effectiveness of vocational training, job creation, and income improvement for rural workers (with a focus on labor export), but the results achieved are still low. The main reason is partly because the district's propaganda is "not correct, not accurate", so people do not really trust it.

On the other hand, the implementation process still has shortcomings such as the labor market for poor districts is not attractive, the procedures are cumbersome, the loan capital is low, and it is not possible to find reputable and capable labor export units. On the part of the people, most of them themselves do not meet the requirements and criteria on working style, skills and health.

Article and photos:My Ha