|
Overseas job opportunities slow
Overseas job opportunities for Vietnamese laborers seem to be drying up, with some experts blaming the slowing global economy and others blaming the behavior of the workers.
Labor exporting companies say the Middle Eastern nation of Qatar is not issuing new visas for Vietnamese laborers or extending the contracts of the thousands of Vietnamese already working on construction sites there.
Nguyen Xuan Vui, general director of Airserco labor export company, said Qatar stopped issuing visas six months ago. But a senior official from the Department of Overseas Labor Management said Qatar had not informed Vietnam of any change in its visa policy for Vietnamese workers.
Qatar’s construction industry has been hit by the economic slowdown, with many projects cutting staff, said a manager of another labor export company, who asked not to be named.
But the manager also said many Vietnamese workers had been involved in violence in Qatar.
Eighty percent of Vietnamese workers overseas have been reported violating local laws and labor contracts, Vietnamese Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan told a meeting on Thursday.
Middle Eastern countries, including Qatar, have been importing laborers to work on construction sites, offering foreign workers between US$200 and $400 a month. The Qatar government in January agreed to receive 100,000 extra workers from Vietnam by the end of 2010.
Ngan said workers sent abroad should be properly trained and qualified. “Vietnamese workers have none of the overseas markets’ requirements - skills, good foreign language competence and discipline,” she said.
Muslim countries forbid the consumption of alcohol but Vietnamese workers in those countries usually drink, she said.
The ministry plans to open three centers to cooperate with foreign counterparts to train workers, said Ngan.
The centers are expected to certify 70-80 percent of overseas workers by 2010.
The Czech Republic stopped issuing employment visas to Vietnamese last month.
Thousands of Vietnamese workers, who were completing paperwork to work in the European country, were left in limbo.
With high salaries and good working conditions, the Czech Republic had been an attractive labor market for Vietnamese workers, said Dao Cong Hai, deputy head of the ministry’s Department of Overseas Labor Management.
A Vietnamese worker in the Czech Republic can save about $500 a month, after spending on food, accommodation and insurance fees, Hai added.
The director of a labor exporter, who wanted to remain anonymous, revealed that dozens of exporters already spent the money the job applicants had given them “lubricating” the visa process.
“The money cannot be taken back now and those workers may have to wear the loss,” said the director.
In Taiwan, the slowing economic conditions are hurting Vietnamese workers.
With hundreds of Taiwanese companies cutting production, many workers have had their hours cut to next to nothing, said Nguyen Ba Hai, head of the management board of Vietnamese workers in Taiwan.
Hai said the board has asked Taiwan’s Labor Bureau to find work for the Vietnamese laborers, rather than send them home.
Vietnam’s labor businesses should start limiting the number of workers they send to Taiwan, he said.
Meanwhile, the Department of Overseas Labor Management has ordered labor exporters not to send workers to markets heavily affected by the economic slowdown, a local newspaper cited department deputy head Hai as saying.
When overseas clients place orders for workers, exporters should carefully weigh up the risks to the economy of the overseas country, he said.
The ministry and the Ministry of Finance in July announced a state aid program to help Vietnamese workers obtain overseas jobs.
Under the program, the government will pay labor export companies up to 30 percent of the travel costs of executives who are seeking overseas markets for Vietnamese workers.
The aid program will also help labor exporters improve workers’ skills.
TN, TT
|
