Libya turmoil traps Vietnamese workers

Vietnamese workers from Lybia- source:tuoitre

The first group of 181 Vietnamese labourers had arrived in Hanoi, according to Do Ngoc Quynh, head of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs’ (MoLISA) overseas labour management department.

Those workers were tied to contracts with Vinaconexmec, one of the 10 Vietnamese companies behind labour exports to Libya. About 105 others fled to Dubai on the same day.

Libya, one of Vietnam’s target labour importers, accommodates nearly 10,000 Vietnamese workers, including 5,000 in the capital city Tripoli and surrounding areas and 2,000 in Benghazi city. Oil-rich Libya is in a state of chaos with an estimated 1,000 people killed, according to foreign media.

The MoLISA has just set up an emergency committee to support Vietnamese workers in Libya and is working with Vietnamese ambassadors in Egypt and Tunisia to help evacuate Vietnamese workers. Most Vietnamese labourers in Libya work in the construction sector on an average salary of $400-$500 per month.

Nguyen Xuan Vui, general director of Air Service Supply Joint Stock Company - that sent 200 workers to Libya, said that the company was working with its Chinese partner to ensure workers’ safety. “The duty now is find ways to support workers and ensure them safe. The workers can be transported by road or air to safer places,” he said.

Nguyen Thi Xuan Hoa, deputy director of Sovilco - which sent 175 Vietnamese workers to Libya, said that the company had worked with its foreign partner to find a safe road out for Vietnamese labourers. “At this moment our workers are safe,” she said

The MoLISA is also working with Vietnam’s ministries of Foreign Affairs and Public Security, Vietnam Airlines and relevant ministries and agencies to prepare policies and measures if a full-scale evacuation of guest workers has to be organised.

“The government will create all possible conditions to support guest workers to return home or be evacuated to neighbouring countries of Libya if the unrest continues,” said Pham Kim Ngan, Minister of MoLISA.

“A number of Vietnamese workers were brought to Turkey, Malta and Egypt by foreign employers and will return to Vietnam at a later date. Others went to Egypt and Tunisia via land routes and were received by a mission of the Vietnamese embassy in Egypt in the border area with Libya,” Ngan said.