The Philippine Embassy in Hanoi has warned Filipino teachers of English against illegal recruiters.

The Philippine Embassy in Hanoi has encountered a number of cases where Filipinos who enter Vietnam as tourists have ended up in severe working and living conditions, according to a recent release by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.

According to the department’s website, a 32-year-old Filipina came to Hanoi on November 4 to check her prospects as an English language teacher at the Blue Ocean Language School, which claims itself to be associated with Lincoln School of Management.

From the airport, she was driven 100 kilometers from the city, after which her passport was confiscated. She was immediately made to teach a class of about 20 students without a contract and a work permit.

“I was not allowed to go anywhere. From the classroom, I had to return to my room and the building was locked. I was even asked to wear sexy clothes,” she told the Embassy. She escaped on November 12 and managed to seek the Embassy’s help in retrieving her passport.

Her case is not the first, according to the Embassy as written on dfa.gov.ph.

“I advise Filipinos wishing to work in Vietnam to carefully check the background of the employer, review the terms of their employment contract, go through proper channels including the POEA and secure a work permit,” according to Ambassador Jerril Santos, Philippine Ambassador to Vietnam.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) is the agency tasked with overseeing the deployment of Filipino workers overseas.

Teachers in Hanoi attest to the existence of three tiers of salaries for English teachers. Native speakers receive more than twice those received by Filipinos while Vietnamese receive a measly 2% salary of native speakers, the release said.

The report by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs also accused some English centers in Vietnam of asking their Filipino teachers to wear colored contact lenses, dye their hair blonde and make their skin fairer in order to look like native speakers.

US$2,000 a month

Recently, Le Hong Son, director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training told Tuoi Tre that the department is recruiting 100 Filipinos to teach English for high school pupils in the city for a salary of US$2,000 per month.

In light of Vietnam’s low cost of living and the fact that the average monthly salary in the country is less than US$200, a $2,000 salary is very high.

Explaining why it chose Filipino teachers over native English speakers, the official explained that “Filipino teachers demanded a lower salary, a mere US$2,000 per month, while Australian teachers asked for $5,000 and UK teachers demanded $10,000 a month [to teach in Vietnam]”.

They are being considered also because of their standard accent thanks to the fact that English is one of the two official languages of the Philippines, Son added.