Vietnamese authorities have improved the legal framework, stepped up communication measures and promoted international co-operation to ensure labourers enjoy better rights when working abroad under contracts, a conference has heard. 

Delegates discuss problems and solutions to ensure better rights for Vietnamese
guest workers abroad at a conference held on January 15 (Photo: VNA) 

The conference on ensuring the rights of Vietnamese guest workers was held by the Standing Office on Human Rights on January 15 in the northern city of Hai Phong.

Over the last few years, the country has sent an increasing number of Vietnamese labourers abroad.

Ensuring rights for the labourers in general and guest workers abroad in specific has been among the important policies of the government, Major General Nguyen Van Ky, deputy chief of the human rights office, said at the conference.

Vietnam has made adjustments to its laws and regulations to ensure they are compatible with the reality, to create favourable conditions for businesses offering guest worker services as well as to better protect the rights and interests of workers abroad, he said.

Human trafficking crimes via labour migration is still a pressing issue in Vietnam. According to Colonel Cao Quoc Viet from the Criminal Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security, the victims, mostly from vulnerable groups in the rural and mountainous areas, are trafficked for sex, labour and their body parts, among other reasons.

There are difficulties in tackling human trafficking as the crime is often conducted in host countries, making it difficult to investigate and rescue the victims, he said, adding that the victims often travel abroad legally, either on travel or work visas and are trafficked only after they enter the host countries.

Deputy head of the Department of Social Vices Prevention and Combat under the Ministry of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs Nguyen Thuy Duong highlighted the psychological and shelter support that trafficking victims require.

It is necessary to work on a standard procedure to support victims, continue to improve the support services, offer training to enhance the quality of social workers as well as ensure localities have a cooperation mechanism among different agencies to support the victims, she said.