VietNamNet Bridge – A male worker who was under unbearable hard work in a wood processing enterprise swam through a lake of hundreds of square meters to flee, but unfortunately he drowned.

The wood processing enterprise in Binh Duong.

Major Ho Van Dung, deputy chief of Dau Tieng district police in Binh Duong province, has said that the death of Mr. Bo Son Rot, 25, a native of Soc Trang province, at noon on May 26 in Can Nom Lake in Thanh An commune, Dau Tieng district was identified.

Rot swam over the lake to escape from the timber producing enterprise of Mr. Tran Tan Phong, 51. Witnesses and workers of this enterprise said that due to the harsh working, Rot and another male worker named Vu Minh Duong, 17, from Ca Mau Province, decided to swim across the lake to escape from the wood processing enterprise.

According to the testimony of the workers, every day they had to work hard for over ten hours. All of them were recruited through brokers. Phong paid brokers VND500,000-800,000 ($25-40) per worker, then deducted the fee from the salaries of the workers. He also holds personal papers of all workers.

Phong’s wood processing enterprise is located on an area of thousands of square meters. It is surrounded by iron fences, a vast lake and guarded by dogs. Every day workers had to wake up at 4am. Their breakfast is a pack of instant noodles worth VND6,000 (deducted into their salary). After breakfast, they worked until 12pm. After a poor lunch, with dried fish and rice, they started back to work at 1pm and finished at 5pm. Their dinner was also with dried fish and rice only.

During the working hours, their cell phones were seized by Phong so they could not communicate with anyone. Also, Phong always locked the door of the wood processing enterprise and watched them by eight cameras. Workers lived like prisoners in this wood enterprise.

The lake where a worker named Rot drown on May 26.

"At first he told us to work a minimum of two months to be paid. However, after two months, he stated to pay salary after a year and forced us to continue to work if we do not want to lose our wages. Some workers wanted to quit even without being paid but he did not return personal papers to them and threatened them," a worker told police.

Ly Vu Phong, 33, a native of Ca Mau province whose wife and two children are workers at this wood processing enterprise said that his 11-year-old daughter saw two workers swimming across the lake. Seeing them waving hands calling for help, she ran off to tell him. Phong urgently ran to the lake and saw Rot submerged.

"I immediately reported the incident to the boss who was sitting drinking with some people but he said “Let’s see if they are good swimmers or not." I ran to the lake again but I could only save Duong, who was about 30 meters from the shore. When Duong was rescued and brought to the shore, the boss kicked twice on him," Phong said.

Duong told the police that because the work was so hard, Duong and Rot decided to escape from this enterprise. As the facility is fenced and guarded by dogs, they had to swim over the large lake. Rot was exhausted and drowned.

The wood enterprise’s owner - Tran Tan Phong - admitted to lock and watch workers by cameras to “keep track of workers who want to escape” because these people owe him. "I do not understand why workers fled," he said.

Mrs. Luu Thi Dep, 31, Khmer ethnic who is a veteran worker here, said most of the workers are Khmer. During her time working here, she could not remember how many workers had fled from this wood facility.

The boss - Tran Tan Phong, 51.

According to Dep, to prevent workers from running away from this enterprise, Phong did not allow workers to hold cash, cell phones and they were locked at night. If they wanted to relieve themselves, they had to do it before going to bed. Once a worker named Long suffered from abdominal pain at midnight. He had to pry up the iron roof to get out.

"The next morning, Mr. Phong kicked Long twice and asked him to pay VND4 million for the iron sheet. Long ran way the following night, fearing that he could not pay the compensation. Mr. Long was glad because the iron sheet was worth several hundreds of thousands dong while he did not have to pay two months of salary for Long," Dep said.

Mrs. Vo Thi Chau, a local said: "My family rescue many workers who ran away from that enterprise at night. We gave them cash and showed them the way to the bus station to go home," Chau said.

Mr. Bui Duc Thang, Thanh Tan village policeman said many times he had to solve conflicts between Phong and his workers because Phong did not pay salary. Some workers who fled from this wood enterprise went to Thang’s home twice but Thang was not at home. His wife gave them some money to go home.

"One time I was at a party when I heard someone shouting 'robbery.' It turned out that two workers of the wood enterprise ran away. Only one escaped; the other said he escaped because working at the wood enterprise was too miserable. I reported annually to the commune authorities. I’m only a village police officer so I’m unable to supervise that enterprise regularly," said Thang.

Party Secretary Vo Van A of Thanh An commune said the wood enterprise committed a lot of mistakes: not signing labor contracts with workers, violating the labor law and confiding workers.

"The Dau Tieng district police are collecting evidences relating to the violation of the Tran Tan Phong wood processing enterprises," said Major Dung.

The wood processing workshop.

The facility is guarded by dogs.

Workers are locked while sleeping.

The are watched by eight cameras.

They have to pay VND6,000 for a pack of instant noodle - their breakfast.

Son Nguyen