Mai Van Cuong, a farmer in the central province of Nghe An, could never believe his son’s “Malaysian” Dream would turn out so tragic. In 2007, 28-year-old Mai Van Son eagerly headed for Malaysia in the hope changing his family’s destitute life, leaving behind his old father, Cuong, and a pregnant wife. Son figured a few years working overseas would enable him to afford to repair his dilapidated home and prepare for the arrival of his baby. But this modest dream turned into a nightmare. Within a few months, his family was stunned by the news: Son had died suddenly. He died without seeing his daughter once, Cuong said tearfully. She lost her father when she was just two months and three days old.
A roommate of Son recalled on that fateful day, Son came back from work as usual, having dinner and going to be at around 11 pm. Early next morning, he found Son in difficult breathing and rushed him to hospital, but it was too late.
Son was only one of over 100 Vietnamese workers who died in Malaysia last year, one-third of whom suffered sudden death, raising major public concern about the safety of Vietnamese working overseas generally and in Malaysia in particular.
According to Overseas Labor Management Department (OLMD) statistics, since April 2002, when Vietnam started sending workers to Malaysia, 315 Vietnamese have died there, an average of one worker every six days. The death rate, standing at 0.09% of 30,000 Vietnamese laborers in Malaysia in 2007, was relatively high compared with other labor markets such as Japan and South Korea.
In the last week of 2007 alone, three Vietnamese workers in Malaysia died suddenly. A worker in Subang 2 State told the Ho Chi Minh City Law newspaper he himself had witnessed no less than 10 sudden deaths of Vietnamese since 2002.
I was shocked at the death toll of Vietnamese in Malaysia, Dr. Bui Tien Loi, deputy director of the National Assembly’s Social Affairs Committee, told the Law newspaper, estimating that the actual figure must be higher since illegal immigrants had not been taken into account.
OLMD officials said Vietnamese laborers in Malaysia died mostly due to labor and traffic accidents, as well as health problems.
OLMD Deputy Director Dao Cong Hai said it was hard for Vietnamese workers to adapt to the dry climate as well as working conditions in Malaysia, attributing these factors to many sudden deaths, especially for those with cardiovascular disease.
A number of workers had failed to meet health requirements, which was the result of lax management of medical examination by both Vietnam and Malaysia in the early days when Vietnam started sending workers to Malaysia, he said, adding that this problem was addressed in late 2004 when the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Health issued a joint circular specifying criteria for healthcare establishments to conduct medical examination for guest workers. Under this circular, only general hospitals of provincial or higher level were eligible to provide this service.
Mr. Hai also pointed to Vietnamese habits of having a bath after drinking and sleeping on the ground under a fan as high risk.
However, most witnesses in Malaysia said the victims were in good health and showed no sign of illness before their deaths. The victims’ relatives also confirmed that the victims got thorough medical examinations before leaving for Malaysia, the Law newspaper said.
The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs sent a team of experts to Malaysia in 2005 to ascertain the cause of sudden death of Vietnamese there. The team, however, could not find any particular reason, Mr. Hai said.
While the cause of sudden death of Vietnamese in Malaysia was still questionable, compensation and settlement of their interests remained problematic.
According to OLMD, Vietnamese guest workers are hired with some insurance, including accident, health, liability and unemployment insurance. If a victim dies when his/her labor contract is still effective, compensation would depend on the kind of insurance. For instance, victims of labor accidents would receive 23,000 ringit (roughly USD 7,000) which would be paid by their Malaysian employers. Families of victims would also get VND 20-30 million (roughly USD 1,300-2,000) from labor export companies.
However, only a few dozen of the 315 people who died in Malaysia received compensation of VND 20-30 million, all from labor export companies rather than Malaysian employers, according to relatives of the victims.
Deputy Minister of Labor Nguyen Thanh Hoa agreed that there were delays in paying compensation for victims, blaming administrative procedures in Malaysia which might take six months to a year.
Meanwhile, to be able to work in Malaysia, each worker had to pay brokerage companies VND 18-19.5 million (roughly USD 1,100-1,200) while their income average at VND 2.5 million (USD 150)/month, meaning they lost one working year to the brokerage fee.
Dr. Loi told the Law newspaper the fact that victims had not received compensation must be taken into account, saying under Malaysian law, employers would pay a certain amount of compensation when their employees suffered misfortune.
If employees died because of employer fault, the employers were liable to pay compensation, Mr. Loi said, but the absence of trade unions overseas made it difficult for victims to get compensation because no organization was responsible for ascertaining the cause of death.
OLMD should also be responsible for the high death toll due to its poor performance in supervising and inspecting labor export businesses, Mr. Loi said.
He said the National Assembly should ask the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to examine and evaluate causes and report them to the National Assembly, saying the issue must be addressed immediately. He also recommended that the State should consider assisting families of victims from the fund for risks in labor export.
Pham Quoc Anh, President of the Vietnam Lawyers Association, also agreed that there were delays from the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs in addressing this major problem, saying the Ministry should promptly step in when the death toll was even just two or three.
He also pointed out that the rights and interests of guest workers had not been effectively protected due to foreign-based labor agencies’ inefficient operation.
Trade union committees should be set up in countries having a large number of Vietnamese guest workers, Nguyen Xuan Nga, deputy director of the Vietnam General Federation of Labor’s Socio-Economic Policy Department, told a consultancy conference on protection and promotion of rights of Vietnamese guest workers earlier this month.
He proposed that 150 operating labor export companies be re-evaluated for qualification, saying many labor exporters only paid attention to attracting laborers by introducing the advantages of working overseas without providing them with specific information on their jobs, life and interests as well as challenges and risks.
Analysts said, although Malaysia was capable of receiving a large number of workers, most workers got low incomes while facing high risks there. That’s why, concerned authorities should take this into account when adopting strategies on labor export market development and orienting laborers, they said.
Vietnam currently has over 400,000 laborers working in more than 40 countries and territories, including South Korea, Japan, Malaysia and Taiwan. They annually earn around USD 2 billion, most of which is remitted home. The country has set a target of sending over a million workers abroad by 2010.
A law on sending workers overseas was promulgated in 2006 in a move to control labor export more effectively. (VLLF)-