A
Greek ship with 1,015 Vietnamese workers on board anchored at Cai Lan port in
Quang Ninh northern province at 4 am, April 4.

They were the last group returning from Libya in the campaign to rescue 10,300
Vietnamese workers from Libya.

The ship, named Lissos, hired by a Brazilian contractor,
left Benghazi
port on March 3. It was scheduled to arrive in Vietnam two weeks later but the
schedule was changed because the ship departed urgently, without adequate cookings
and water, etc.

Instead of anchoring at Tan
Cang Port
in the northern port city of Hai Phong, it moved
to Cai Lan Port
in Quang Ninh because the water level in Tan Cang is lower than required by
safety regulations.

Two labor export companies, Vinaconexmec and VTC corp, had
30 cars waiting there to bring them to their hometowns.

The ship landed at Cai Lan port at 4 am but workers didn’t
leave the vessel until 7 am.

Most of these laborers are from the central provinces of
Nghe An and Ha Tinh, and the remaining from northern provinces.

The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs asked
labor export businesses to settle contracts with them within two weeks since
they came back to Vietnam.

On February 24, Vietnam
set up a steering board to deal with issues related to Vietnamese laborers in
the Middle East and North Africa. The
government also sent five working delegations to Libya’s neighboring countries and
called for assistance from the international community to help Vietnamese
workers return home.

This is Vietnam’s
second campaign to rescue overseas workers. In 1991, Vietnam
evacuated 18,000 workers in Iraq.

PV