A new decree bans Vietnamese from taking massage jobs abroad.
Photo by Shutterstocks/Jimmy Tran. 

Vietnamese will be banned from working seven types of dangerous jobs while overseas, including massage, under a government decree effective May 20. 

Under the new decree, guiding the new law on Vietnamese working overseas under contract, recruiters will not be allowed to send citizens abroad for seven dangerous and hazardous jobs.

Vietnamese will be banned from working as masseuse/masseur at hotels, restaurants and entertainment facilities abroad. 

They will be forbidden to work in jobs that come in frequent contact with explosives and toxic substances in the metallurgy of non-ferrous metals, as well as jobs that involve exposure to open radioactive sources and exploitation of radioactive ores of all kinds.

They are banned working production and packaging jobs that expose them to nitric acid, sodium sulfate, pesticides, herbicides, mice, antisepsis, and termites with strong toxicity.

Hunting wild animals, crocodiles and sharks is also forbidden. In addition, recruiters are banned from sending Vietnamese abroad working in pressure-sensitive conditions, such as underground or the diving industry.

Those jobs involved in shrouding, burying of the dead, cremation of corpses and exhuming graves is also on the banned list for Vietnamese workers abroad.

Over 147,000 workers went abroad last year, up 3.2 percent from 2018, marking the sixth year in a row the figure exceeded 100,000, according to official statistics.

In recent years, many Vietnamese women have been caught working illegally as masseuses or sex workers at restaurants and entertainment facilities in other Southeast Asian countries. Many of them were trafficking victims.