Asia Times: Unemployment pushes Vietnam to export labor


	June 12, 2000	atimes.com

Asian Crisis

Unemployment pushes Vietnam to export labor
By Nguyen Nam Phuong

HANOI - Exporting labor to wealthier parts of the world has long been something in which Vietnam has lagged behind its Asian neighbors, but the government hopes to change that soon.

As Hanoi sees it, labor exports could help ease the country's growing burden of unemployment, as well as alleviate poverty. It is now pushing to have the number of Vietnamese overseas workers soar over the next few years.

At the same time, the country is already grappling with the social costs of the campaign: poor people are getting into debt to pay for overseas trips and workers abroad are becoming vulnerable to abuses.

Last year, Vietnam exported nearly 22,000 workers, who sent home some US$220 million. Many were in countries like Laos, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Libya, employed in construction, industry, sea transport, seafood processing, health care and agriculture. This year, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) aims at having some 30,000 workers abroad, and between 400,000 and 500,000 annually by 2005. Ten years from now, it plans to have Vietnamese labor exports reaching one million.

''Sending laborers to work abroad is one of Vietnam's major efforts to settle issues of employment, especially for young people,'' Prime Minister Pham Van Khai said in early June. Indeed, joblessness is becoming an increasing concern for this country of 77 million people. MoLISA says that unemployment rose to 7.4 percent last year, from 6.8 percent in 1998.

Falling GDP growth and dwindling foreign investment inflows are largely to blame for the rising number of jobless workers. Compounding the problem is an administrative reform drive that plans to slash the government payroll by 15 percent, and growing redundancies from loss-making state-owned enterprises.

But it is among farming households, which account for more than 70 percent of the population, that unemployment could have the most severe long-term consequences. As the rural community swells and less new land becomes available for cultivation, underemployment is becoming a widespread problem, resulting in large-scale unplanned migration to cities.

It is young, largely unskilled laborers that the government is targeting for export. But while overseas employers may consider it a plus that they cannot command high wages, these workers' relative lack of skills in comparison with those from other countries is a major drawback, as is their inability to converse or understand a foreign language.

These shortcomings are already proving problematic for labor exporters here. SaigonTourist, a state-owned enterprise that specializes in supplying workers for tourist ships, complained recently that it could not fulfill its quota. As late as March, the company had managed to recruit only 17 people to work for Star Cruise ships, while the target was 500. A SaigonTourist official told a local newspaper, ''There has been a dramatic drop in the number of applicants so far this year.''

Although meager benefits were among things cited as the main recruitment hurdles, the employers also set high qualification requirements. Applicants had to meet specific health and age requirements, have a sound knowledge of English, hotel industry skills and work experience. Successful applicants were to receive $500 a month, including bonuses, although they would have had to endure a seven- day workweek and be paid with a month's wage for their compulsory two-month annual leave.

But such deals remain tempting to many rural Vietnamese, whose average annual per capita income is only $170.

Many of them not only fall short of the skills required, but have to struggle come up with the formidable initial outlay needed for such an opportunity. Applicants for jobs overseas have to pay $2,000-$3,500 in fees to the local company brokering the deal. This usually includes a deposit, for which property or land rights are often accepted, and sometimes insurance. Then there are passport, health certificate and police fees, which are not cheap. On top of all this is a 10 percent value-added tax on earnings overseas. The brokers also receive a fixed 12 percent of the value of the contracts.

''It's a lot for poor people to pay,'' admits one labor export broker. ''But if they really want to change their lives, at the end of a two- or three-year contract, they can come home with $7,000 to $10,000 after paying their debts.''

Observers say the government should impose tougher measures to control brokers if it wants its labor export efforts to succeed. Already, stories of brokers overcharging and misleading job applicants have become common in the local press. In one of the biggest cases to go to trial, the Hanoi People's Court in February sentenced a recruiter to life imprisonment for stealing more than $60,000 from applicants. Court records show that 100 people had been deceived into paying for access to non-existent jobs in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Germany.

But some now fear that Hanoi's recent decision to open up labor services to private businesses, in addition to more than 130 licensed state-owned ones, will only increase the risk of exploitation. They also point out that little is being done to protect Vietnamese workers once they are overseas. Some returning workers have complained of abuse and exploitation by their foreign bosses, and lack of support from the companies that arranged their contracts.

Just last month, the World Security newspaper reported a case in which 40 of 300 northern Vietnamese women sent to Taiwan to work as domestic helpers returned home complaining of being beaten, left hungry or sexually abused by their employers.

''I had to pay a total of $2,650 in deposits, police fees and for health checks and I have got nothing in return,'' said Pham Thi Dung, one of the returnees. Dung said she was forced to work 19 hours a day, was ill-fed and beaten regularly. She also said the employment broker forced her to declare that she had resigned for health reasons. ''My family now has to cope with the debts,'' she added.

Speaking to IPS, a representative from the employment broker denied Dung's allegations and said the women's deposits have been repaid in full. And while the women ''have their own reasons'' for breaking the contracts, he said, ''I think some women can't stand the life in Taiwan because they don't understand the language, so they make up these kinds of excuses to come home.''

(Inter Press Service)