Some 100,000 people, many of them immigrants, lost their jobs due to the closing of the Cherkizovsky market in Moscow.

The government is concerned about Moscow’s decision late last month to temporarily close a market that is home to many businesses run by Vietnamese, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

He said representatives of the Foreign Ministry and the Vietnamese Embassy in Russia had worked with relevant Russian agencies to deliver the country’s message of concern about the issue.

Russian authorities said the market would be closed for at least three months amid accusations of sanitary violations, smuggling and the use of illegal immigrant labor, according to an AFP report.

Some 100,000 people lost their jobs due to the closing, many of them immigrants, according to a Russian migrants association.

A local soup kitchen was being set up separately near the site to serve out-of-work migrants, Moscow radio broadcasts reported earlier this month.

Dzung said the Vietnamese government had suggested that the Moscow administration and Russian agencies solve the issue fairly and clearly while ensuring the safety of property and rights belonging to Vietnamese people doing business at the market.

Reported by Huong Giang