About ten Vietnamese brought to France during the World War II were awarded medals by Arles Mayor Herve Schiavetti on December 10. 

The newspaper said those people had made decisive contributions to the restoration of rice cultivation, introduced into the city in the middle of the 19th century. 

There were 500 Vietnamese people working in rice farms and 1,000 others in salt fields in Camargue during WW II.

The Le Monde unveiled the Arles city’s plan to turn an avenue or a square into a site in tribute to the contributions made by those Vietnamese farmers.

The newspaper mentioned a book titled “Forced Immigrants. Indochinese labourers in France,1939-1952”, by Pierre Daum that portrays hardships suffered by an estimated 20,000 people from Indochina.