Thousands of Chinese have been found working without a permit in Vietnam.

Of this large number, more than 2,000 are in Vung Ang Economic Zone in northern Ha Tinh Province, and over 200 others are in the southern province of Tra Vinh, statistics said.

About 900 Chinese are working at the Duyen Hai Electricity Center in Duyen Hai District, according to a report from the Tra Vinh Province Department of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs.

Around 230 of them have yet to be granted work permits, the department said, adding that they are working to construct the Duyen Hai thermal power plant.

After discovering this situation during an inspection on March 10, deputy director of the department Duong Quang Ngoc issued a document saying that as of March 15, all foreign workers who had yet to obtain a work permit would not be allowed to enter the center for work.

However, the deadline for these illegal workers to obtain work permits was later delayed until May 15, Ngoc said.

He explained that the first thermal power plant is expected to put its first generator into a trial run later this year, and if these workers failed to obtain work permits before March 15, they would not be allowed to work and their absence would affect the progress of the plant.

2,000 illegal Chinese workers in Ha Tinh

The Vung Ang Economic Zone in Ha Tinh Province now employs 3,730 foreign workers, most of them Chinese.

Only 1,560 of the workers have secured work permits, according to a March 19 report by the management board of the zone.

The board, which has been authorized by the provincial authorities to grant work permits to foreigners working in the zone, said that many contractors do not report the number of foreign workers they employ to the board.

In addition, many contractors have some sub-contractors that also employ foreigners.

Meanwhile, many investors have yet to put all sub-contractors under control, so it is hard to detect illegal workers, the board explained.

Last year, the Inspectorate of the provincial Department of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs fined three contractors at Vung Ang VND35 million (US$1,650) for violating regulations on employing foreigners.

The department also proposed that local police force 102 illegal Chinese workers to leave Vietnam.

Chinese make six times more than Vietnamese

A security guard at Binh Thuan Security Company in Binh Thuan Province told Tuoi Tre on Wednesday that Chinese workers are paid far more than Vietnamese workers for the same job.

Similarly, Chinese workers at a construction site of the Formosa Project in Vung Ang Economic Zone (Ha Tinh Province) are paid three to four times more than their Vietnamese counterparts for the same work.

Vo Van Doi, deputy chairman of the People’s Committee of Dan Thanh Commune, Duyen Hai District (Tra Vinh Province), told Tuoi Tre that Vietnamese workers are paid five to six times less than their peers.

“For the same job, foreign workers are paid over VND1 million ($47) per day, while Vietnamese workers are paid much lower, at only VND160,000-250,000 per day,” Doi said.

Shunning Vietnamese workers

In the central province of Thanh Hoa, a Chinese contractor has brought 163 Chinese workers into Vietnam to work at Cong Thanh Cement Plant until the end of this year.

Of these workers, 49 hold a university degree and the remaining 114 are technical workers. In the meantime, technical workers are available in the province, but the contractor did not recruit them.

Such employment is against Vietnam’s regulations on employing foreigners, according to Le Quang Trung, deputy head of the Employment Department under the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs.

“Under applicable regulations, unskilled foreign workers are not allowed to be employed in Vietnam. Vietnam only recruits foreign managers, directors, experts, and technical workers. But if Vietnamese workers meet the standards required for such jobs, they must be recruited in place of foreigners,” Trung said.