Most gold miners at illegal goldfields in central Vietnam gave up their hard labor after around a month and have stealthily fled from the isolated working places without being paid.

Unemployed back in their hometowns, young workers have taken risks to enter the jungles in Quang Nam Province to work for the owners of illegal goldfields there but many have ended up quitting their jobs without having enough money to even buy bus tickets to return home.

After fleeing from the sites and passing through forests to find ways to walk to residential areas, some of them were taken to a shelter and later sent home half a month ago.

Most of them have a pale complexion and are still suffering from malaria, with fever coming every two days.

Many laborers said they would rather be unemployed than work for isolated illegal goldfields in the central region because of hard labor and physical abuse.

The way to hard labor

Over three months ago, around a dozen young workers in Ngoc Lac District, located in the central province of Thanh Hoa, were approached by a labor agent, who was looking for miners to introduce to illegal goldfield operators in Quang Nam Province, over 800km south of Thanh Hoa.

Most of them, aged 16 to 20, were born to poor households and have not graduated from high school.

Pham Van Cuong, 19, and Pham Van Hao, 17, were among many who fell prey to such an agent to become illicit gold miners in Quang Nam.

Cuong recalled he was unemployed and his family did not have any stable income, so he agreed to leave for the illegitimate goldfields in Quang Nam through a broker, Pham Van Anh.

Anh then introduced himself as a Ngoc Lac resident, Cuong said.

The broker then bought bus tickets to send the two ‘preys’ and many of their fellow countrymen to a goldfield in Phuoc Son District in Quang Nam.

At the site, the workers were transferred to a man who identified himself as the owner of a goldfield and Anh has disappeared since that moment.

Cuong said he, as well as the other workers, was promised a monthly salary of VND4 million (US$192) but he could only get his pay every six months after consenting to do the work.

The miner added that he and his colleagues had to sustain hard labor for nine to ten hours a day at the goldfield, 150 meters deep into the mountains.

Their job was to dig up soil, load it onto carts, and push the vehicles to nearby streams so as to extract gold from the soil.

Besides, the workers had to carry fuel on shoulders and walk for 3-4 kilometers through the forest to feed machines at the goldfield.

All workers were under strict supervision of the taskmasters of the goldfield who often abused them physically.

Those who defied orders or signified any intention to flee away would be beaten up and verbally abused.

However, all miners at the goldfield were given good food together with extremely hard labor.

After a month working like slaves and realizing that they were cheated, Cuong, Hao and other workers wanted to stop working but their taskmasters turned them down.

So they decided to flee from the goldfield and went through the forest to find the way home.

They managed to find jobs to earn money for buying bus tickets to go home but were again duped into working for another goldfield in Phu Ninh District of Quang Nam.

There, they were promised a monthly salary of VND3.5 million ($168) but the work was even more strenuous. Sometimes, they had to work day and night under threats of abuses.

The workers fled from the site after ten days, went through the forest, and then found a household in Tien Tho Commune of Tien Phuoc District in Quang Nam a fortnight ago.

Their case was then reported to local police and the workers were sent to a shelter.

“I finished the seventh grade and went to work to help my parents. My wife is pregnant and so I just wanted to find a job to help my family,” Cuong said in the shelter while waiting to go home.

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