The Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs admitted on the sideline of the National Assembly session on May 25 that her ministry doesn’t have an accurate count of foreign workers in Vietnam.

Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

Labour Ministry the entity that manages foreign workers

The Prime Minister assigned MoLISA to check up on the use of foreign laborers in some provinces and report to him before May 31. How has the Ministry implemented this task?

The presence of foreign workers in Vietnam is a fact. But we have to wait for statistics from local governments to determine how many foreign workers are in Vietnam at present.

What is clear is that most of these workers come to Vietnam on tourist visas and they are not approved to work. They come to work for foreign contractors of projects in Vietnam. That is a fact. The question is how to manage them.

Local governments, ministries, police, labor management agencies, and investors whose hire foreign contractors have to cooperate to establish the number of foreign workers who are required to apply for Vietnamese work permits.

In the age of economic integration, we cannot just lock our door and ban foreign workers in Vietnam. However, they have to obey Vietnamese laws. For instance, only highly skilled foreigners are allowed to work in Vietnam. If they work here for over three months, they must get a work permit. Where they get the permit, they have the right to work there.

The rules are quite strict but we don’t implement them well.

You mean that our management of foreign workers is sloppy?

MoLISA is the government agency managing foreign laborers but the ministry doesn’t issue permits for anybody to enter Vietnam; that’s the immigration agency. Foreigners enter Vietnam with purposes noted in their visa like tourism or visiting their relatives. But in fact, they come here to work.

In this case, local authorities and employers where businesses have foreign workers and employers must report to the local government how many foreign workers they have and ask for work permits. That is the procedure, but it is not carried out properly.

So the responsibility belongs to employers, not labor management bodies?

The responsibility belongs to government labor management agencies from the central to grassroots levels. It is correct to say that it is MoLISA’s job, but that’s only in general. I can take responsibility in general, but I cannot fix it all by myself because I don’t authorize them to enter Vietnam.

We have to establish agency responsibilities clearly at the central level and the grassroots level, and be very clear responsibility of investors and employers.

What is your viewpoint in using foreign workers?

We allow foreigners to work in Vietnam, but only skilled ones. They must register and have work permits. We have to deal with any violations of Vietnamese law.

In your opinion, how should we amend our management of foreign workers in Vietnam?

First, we have to review the laws to find out gaps. Second, we must fix responsibility, especially the management role of local governments.

Vietnam Confederation of Labor Chairman Dang Ngoc Tung: I have sent my questions about foreign workers in Vietnam to the government. The media recently reported a flow of foreign workers into Vietnam, including foreign tourists who stay in Vietnam to work. As the representative of workers, I want to question the government about the number of foreign workers in Vietnam. Fore example, how many of them are granted work permits and how many don’t have work permits. According to Vietnamese rules, we only recruit skilled foreign workers in the fields where skilled Vietnamese workers are lacking. We don’t recruit unskilled workers. How will the government deal with illegal foreign workers? In the context that many Vietnamese workers at home and abroad have become jobless, the Vietnam Confederation of Vietnam believes the state must give priority to local laborers, especially manual workers.

Noted by Hoang Phuong and Xuan Linh