Visa to Czech halted: bankruptcy threats manpower exporters

VietNamNet Bridge – The Czech Republic Embassy in Vietnam has not stated it will temporarily stop granting visa to Vietnamese citizens but labour exporting companies and thousands of Vietnamese workers are on a knife-edge.

Without a visa to the Czech Republic, many workers will become debtors (Vietnamese workers sitting in front of the Czech Republic Embassy in Hanoi applying for visas).

 

Many manpower exporting companies said that without prompt assistance from the government they would go bankrupt. They said at the time when the Overseas Labour Management Department announced to halt recruiting workers to the Czech Republic (July 16, 2008), the number of workers who were waiting for visas to the Czech Republic was great.

 

If the Czech Republic temporarily stops granting visas to Vietnamese workers, labour exporting firms will have to refund a lot of money to workers whose paid fees for these firms already.

 

Nguyen Ngoc Anh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Labour Exports, Construction, and Services JS Company (Oleco) (under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), said Oleco will be in tense situation if the Czech Republic does not grant visas to Vietnamese citizens. Over 200 workers who were recruited by Oleco to send to the Czech Republic will not get a visa yet. As it was too difficult to get a visa, Oleco told workers to come to get their money back.

 

The businessman said it is no problem for Oleco to refund the amount of money that it has collected from workers to pay for administrative formalities, but it is a major problem for the firm to have money to return the fees for getting labor licenses and visaa.

 

Nguyen Thanh Minh, Director of Vinamex (under the Vietnam Construction Import – Export Corporation), said the biggest difficult for labour exporting companies is that they already paid intermediaries to take care of some formalities. This kind of pay does not have an invoice or any kind of document.

 

“I know many companies (manpower exporting companies) that don’t do any thing but introduce workers to intermediaries. So it is very difficult to ask these firms to take responsibility for the fees that they collect from workers,” Minh said.

 

The director of a manpower exporting company, who asked to be anonymous, said his company has over 600 workers who don’t have a visa to the Czech Republic. If the Czech Republic stops granting visas, the firm will go bankrupt.

 

He said besides official fees, this company collected other kinds of money from workers to pay for intermediaries. If the Czech Republic does not grant visas to Vietnamese guest workers, the company will have to refund a huge amount of money to workers.

 

Czech market not attractive anymore

 

Tran Thanh Ha, Director of the International Manpower Training and Supply Co. Ltd (Nosco), said the Czech Government’s decision hits Vietnamese labour because, compared to other European countries, Vietnamese workers can earn high and stable income in the Czech Republic, around US $1,000 for each person per month.

 

Difficulties in granting visas to Vietnamese workers have happened for a long period of time. In July 2008, after the Overseas Labour Management Department decided to stop recruiting workers to the Czech Republic, Nosco sent workers who were recruited for the Czech market to others, such as Bulgaria, Taiwan and some Middle Eastern countries.

 

Some big labor exporters like Simco Song Da, Airserco, AIC, Viet Thang, Traenco, or OSC Hai Phong, which are among 34 companies permitted to export labor to the Czech Republic, said that the republic is a good market for Vietnamese workers and they invested both time and money in this market, but they had to say goodbye because of difficulties in obtaining visas. The Czech government stopped granting visas to Vietnamese workers perhaps because of the spread of operation of visa intermediaries.

 

But which agency will protect the interest of workers who may lose a huge amount of money and to rescue some labour exporting companies? Dao Cong Hai, Vice Chief of the Overseas Labor Management Agency, said: “Since July 2008, we asked labor exporting companies to stop recruiting new workers to the Czech Republic. Labour exporters and workers must observe to the contracts signed between them before July 2008. In case disputes occur, workers can bring the case to court. About losses for labor exporters, we have to wait because the Czech Embassy in Vietnam has not made an official announcement. When the embassy has the official answer, we will take necessary assistance measures.”

 

Nguyen Xuan AN, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Labor Export Association, said the Czech market has stopped operations for a long time because the Czech Embassy in Hanoi did grant a small number of visas for an extended period.

 

Nguyen Luong Trao, former Deputy Minister of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, Chairman of the Vietnam Labor Export Association, said it is not clear whether the announcement to stop granting visas to Vietnamese citizens of the Czech Government will take effect until the end of December 2008 or longer.

 

He said Vietnamese workers who came to the republic legally have positively contributed to Czech economy, and this country still needs this source of labour.

 

Caption: Without a visa to the Czech Republic, many workers will become debtors (Vietnamese workers sitting in front of the Czech Republic Embassy in Hanoi applying for visas).

 

(Source: Tien Phong)

Update from: http://english.vietnamnet.vn//reports/2008/11/814678/