Vietnamese Vice Ambassador in Kuala Lumpur, Trinh Vinh Quang, told the Thanh Nien daily that most of these workers are women, who came to Malaysia to work for Asmanna Sdn Bhd through a Vietnamese labour agency in Ha Tinh and its Malaysian counterpart in Penang state.

These workers were employed by Asmana to clean hospitals, buildings and public areas in the Penang capital of George Town with a monthly wage of 546 ringgit (equal to VND3.7 million).

Asmana is responsible for renewing annual work permits for the workers.

Malaysian company’s breach of contract

In February 2012, the workers said they were not paid and their expired work permits were not renewed.

The case was highlighted as Penang state assemblyman Koay Teng Hai on March 16 visited a double-storey house where 42 female Vietnamese workers aged 30-50 were living temporarily.

Malaysia’s The Star website published photos of these women sobbing while talking about their plight.

The Star quoted these women workers as saying that their Malaysian agent had treated them as ‘slaves’ for about 20 months, reduced their wage from 50 ringgit per day to 25, and held their passports. As of February, they had received only 20kg every three days to eat.

Mr Koay had reported the case to the Malaysian authorities as well as the Vietnamese embassy in Malaysia. An official of George Town police, Gan Kong Meng, said the case was still under investigation.

On the morning of March 18, all Vietnamese workers and a number of Nepalese workers in the same plight were sent to a protection centre in Kuala Lumpur as ordered by the magistrate’s court.

Many workers willing to work in Malaysia

Vice Ambassador Trinh Vinh Quang told the Thanh Nien newspaper via telephone that some information on the Malaysia press was not accurate and that the Malaysian employer Asmana had to bear main responsibility for the case.

Quang added that Asmana and the Vietnamese labour agency had given the workers some money in advance.

On February 14, Vietnamese Counsellor Nguyen Tien San sent a letter requesting Asmana to comply with the terms of the labour contract it signed.

On February 26, San had a tripartite working session at Asmana headquarters with the participation of the Vietnamese labour agency, VIHATICO.

Forty-five of the 68 Vietnamese workers mentioned above prefer staying to work in Malaysia, but the rest want to return home as soon as possible, Quang said./.