Lost 40 million VND due to "internal disaster"
In early 2024, Mr. Le Ha (character's name has been changed) living in Phu Tho province listened to an introduction from an acquaintance on social media about the labor recruitment program to Korea for agriculture with a salary of 40-50 million VND/month.
This person committed to having "internal approval", no need to go through an intermediary, only need to pay 40 million VND in advance to "keep the seat". With the desire to change his life, Mr. Ha collected all the money he had saved, combined with a loan from relatives to submit documents.
After transferring money, the recruitment team kept promising and delaying because of "complex procedures". But more than 3 months have passed, and Mr. Ha has not received any official notices. When they contacted again, the phone was blocked, and the subject's social media account also disappeared. Knowing that he had been scammed, Mr. Ha could only report to the police.
"Thinking that there was an opportunity to go abroad to do business, who would have thought they would fall into a scam trap?" - Mr. Ha choked up.
Taking advantage of people's desire to find jobs and change their lives, many subjects have created groups on Facebook and Zalo to lure and scam.
Mr. Ha is just one of many workers in poor rural areas hoping to go abroad to work, have a job, and increase their income to send money to their families.
Workers fall into social evils
At the meeting, dialogue and removal of difficulties for businesses operating in the field of sending Vietnamese workers to work abroad under contracts under contracts, Colonel Nguyen Huy Khich - Deputy Director of the Department of Internal Political Security (Ministry of Public Security) - said that in the past time, through the work of ensuring security and order in the field of labor export, the police agency has found many shortcomings. The biggest problem at present is that the cost that workers have to spend to work abroad is still very high.
He said that through investigating a number of cases, the police agency discovered that a number of large enterprises had the situation of leaving off the books a huge amount of money collected from workers.
"These expenses are entirely borne by workers, including domestic and foreign brokerage fees" - Colonel Nguyen Huy Khich said, at the same time believing that for workers who are already disadvantaged, having to spend such large sums of money will make them fall into difficult circumstances, even "nearly enduring".
According to Colonel Nguyen Huy Khich, the current legal system on this field is basically quite complete, from directives, decrees to guiding circulars. However, in reality, there are still "bottlenecks" that the authorities are trying to review and correct.
Another disadvantage is domestic labor brokerage activities, especially from organizations and individuals that have not been licensed for labor export. Many individuals participate in activities such as recruiting resources, promoting on social networks, even forging documents of agencies and organizations to propagate and attract workers.
Meanwhile, official information channels of the State or legal enterprises have not reached the people, making it easy for workers to be leads, costing a lot of money.
Recently, the Ministry of Public Security has prosecuted and investigated many cases related to labor export activities. The main crimes include: Fraudulent appropriation of property, abuse of trust to appropriate property, illegal exit, human trafficking, organizing illegal flight abroad or staying, violating accounting regulations causing serious consequences, receiving bribes, and forging documents of agencies and organizations.
"In 2024 - 2025 alone, hundreds of cases related to this field have been prosecuted" - he informed.
According to the leader of the Internal Political Security Department, the fight is very important, but only one way. The core issue is that enterprises, state management agencies and coordinating units need to increase their responsibility in law enforcement, ensure order and transparency in the field of labor export.
He also said that the Ministry of Public Security will continue to coordinate with the Ministry of Home Affairs and relevant ministries and branches to improve legal regulations, especially the reduction of "sub-licenses" and unnecessary administrative procedures, promoting decentralization and delegation of authority to localities, while strengthening post-inspection work.
Transfer from "pre-inspection" to " post-inspection"
Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Vu Chien Thang said that the sending of workers abroad is slow due to many reasons: Difficulties in the global economy, tightening immigration policies in some countries, inadequate domestic management mechanisms and violations in sending workers abroad.
Accordingly, the Ministry of Home Affairs will implement 4 major groups of solutions. First, study and strongly reform administrative procedures, cut intermediaries, publicize all procedures, costs, and agreements to make it easier for workers to access accurate information.
Next, promote communication about international cooperation programs, clearly distinguish between commercial and non-profit models so that people are not taken advantage of by brokers. Improve the quality of labor resources through vocational training, foreign language skills, style, and education on the awareness of complying with the laws of the host country.
Finally, promote digital transformation in overseas labor management, build applications such as DOLAB-JICA, a job exchange so that workers have more transparent options; at the same time, coordinate diplomatically and consularly to protect citizens. The responsibility of enterprises does not stop at sending workers out of the country, but is a "circular chain" from selection, training, protection until workers complete their contracts and return home.
He also recommended that workers, especially young people, need to find information from official sources such as the website of the Department of Overseas Labor Management, Overseas Labor Centers or the Department of Home Affairs of localities; Absolutely do not believe in advertisements, social networking groups or unauthorized brokers.
In the coming time, the Ministry of Home Affairs will coordinate to establish an interdisciplinary inspection team to strictly handle organizations and individuals who do not have licenses, inflate orders, make illegal profits or abandon workers when at risk.
"The spirit is to strongly shift from "pre-inspection" to "post-inspection", protecting the legitimate rights of Vietnamese workers" - Deputy Minister Vu Chien Thang emphasized.
According to Acting Director of the Department of Overseas Labor Management Vu Truong Giang, in the first 10 months of 2025, the whole country sent more than 120,000 workers to work abroad, reaching 93.2% of the annual plan.
Of which, Japan continues to be the largest market receiving Vietnamese workers, with more than 55,000 people. Second place is Taiwan (China) with more than 47,000 workers, followed by South Korea with nearly 10,000 workers. In addition to traditional markets, many other markets in the European region such as Germany, Rumani, Hungary, Russia... remain stable.
It is estimated that by the end of 2025, the total number of Vietnamese workers working abroad in the period of 2021-2025 will reach about 636,000 people, equivalent to 127.3% of the plan (500,000 people).
Workers working abroad have stable income, significantly higher than the domestic income in the same industry and qualifications. Each year, Vietnamese workers send about 6.5-7 billion USD back to the country, making an important contribution to the national foreign currency, increasing accumulation, and improving the lives of themselves and their families.
