Motorbike taxi drivers at major bus stations on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City have long lured innocent people into illegal labor rings.

Lacking information and knowledge, many unskilled youth from the country manage to find jobs by taking a bus to the southern economic hub and hiring a motorbike taxi to drive them around the city in search of jobs.

Most of them have no license or diploma; they are armed with only their good health and a strong desire to earn money.

To take advantage of these innocent people, illegal labor recruiting rings plant motorbike taxi drivers at the city’s major bus stations to pick up and introduce them to their rings.

Workers in the rings are not actually recruited, but rather lured and cheated. Once they work for a company, which is usually a private farm or garment factory, the workers are only paid at the end of the year, rather than every month, to prevent them from quitting.

Once they have “sold” a customer to the ring, the motorbike taxi driver earns both a transport fee from the worker and a commission from the ring.

Penetrating the rings

Pretending to be men from the countryside seeking a simple job in HCMC, two journalists from Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper contacted the rings and were successful in uncovering their tactics of cheating people and exploiting their labor.

On July 3, a Tuoi Tre journalist entered the Mien Dong (Eastern) bus station dressed in the simple clothes of a country laborer. A motorbike driver named Hoang stopped him immediately.

Hoang told him, “I get only VND50,000 [over US$2]” to bring a man looking for a job to a company.

He pocketed the identification card of the man after asking if he had brought it with him.

Hoang drove the man to a company located on February 3rd Street in District 11 and pushed him through the door, saying, “Go in. They will arrange work for you.”

After refusing the job offered, the man saw Hoang negotiate with another man named Hiep, also a motorbike taxi driver and labor intermediary.

Hiep asked Hoang, “How much do you want for him? Is 100,000 dong [$4.8] enough?”

Hoang shook his head and held four fingers up, indicating that he wanted VND400,000 ($19).

Hiep bargained, “200,000 dong is high enough. You have to be fair with me.”

Hoang agreed to “sell” the job seeker for VND200,000.

Hiep took the man’s ID card and brought him to another company, Tien Dat, located at 137/31/3 Phan Anh Street in Binh Tri Dong Ward of Binh Tan District.

While driving him, Hiep offered to help the man find work at a farm in central Lam Dong Province, telling him that a worker is given food, accommodation, and a transportation stipend and paid a salary at the end of the year.

“Yesterday, I sent four people from your hometown to that company. It recruits dozens of workers a day,” Hiep said.

Protesting that he was fleeing from a similar farm, the man refused the offer.

Immediately, Hiep insulted him, “F**k. You aren’t worth my money. I’ve just bought you for 200,000 dong.”

After that, Hiep brought the man to a different company, telling him, “I’ve been working in this job for a decade. Now I am willing to bring you to a different place.”

At the Ngoc Thu Company at 926 An Duong Vuong Street in District 6, the man refused the new job.

Hiep shouted, “Do you want to work or not? You’ve refused two or three places. I spent 200,000 dong on you. If you don’t work, I will lose my money!”

Hiep carried the man back to a cafeteria in alley 38 on Lanh Binh Thang Street in District 11, and called four friends, who are also motorbike taxi drivers, to threaten the man.

“Now you pay me 450,000 dong to go. It is 250,000 dong for the transport fee and 200,000 dong for the cost to buy you,” Hiep insisted.

With only 150,000 left, the man had to call his relatives to borrow VND300,000 to pay Hiep.

Holding VND450,000 ($22) in his hands, Hiep added, “If I can sell you to a company I get 800,000 dong for commission. Without it, I get only 450,000 dong from you.”

Tuoi Tre contacted a woman who operates an illegal ring that “sells” workers from the countryside. She introduced herself as Hang.

Hang explained that she “buys” around 20 workers a day from motorbike taxi drivers like Hiep and Hoang and earns a monthly salary of VND12 million ($577).

She said that she earns an additional VND4-5 million a month if she buys more than her quota.