VietNamNet Bridge – Tens of students in Quang Nam province once harbored the dream of studying and working for money in Japan. Only after arriving in Japan, did they realize that they were swindled.

In 2012, a man introducing himself as Tran Nhan Vu, Director of the central region branch of the Phuc Son Overseas Study Consultancy Company, came to see Tran Van Thien (1992) and Vo Thanh Trung (1991) in Binh Minh commune to “give advice on how to go studying abroad.”

Thien and Trung were told that during the study period in Japan, they would be able to find jobs to get money, about VND30-40 million a month on average.

The income proved to be too attractive to Thien and Trung, which would help them have new lives. In Vietnam, those, who can earn VND10 million or more a month, are listed as “high income earners.”

Therefore, Thien and Trung accepted to pay VND190 million to Phuc Son Company, which said the sum of money would be spent on “necessary procedures.”

Thien was told that the VND190 million would be spent on his tuition for the first six-month study in Japan, 3-month house rent and airfare. Besides, Thien also had to pay VND7 million for administrative formalities and a Japanese language certificate.

“I could not remember the alphabet, but I still could obtain a certificate,” Thien said.

“Vu told me that I just needed to be present at the exam in Hanoi, and everything would be okay. After that, I received the certificate on Japanese language skill and the admission notice of a Japanese school,” he explained.

Not only Thien and Vu, a lot of other young men in the same commune then rushed to borrow money to pay to the overseas study consultancy firm.

And they finally set foot in Japan. In late December 2012, Thien and the other 25 people, including 10 from Quang Nam province, took a flight to Saitama City in Japan.

But they immediately realized that they were swindled and that their dream would never come true.

All of them boarded in the same place in the city, for which they had to pay rent and spent tens of thousands of yen on bedding.

“We were abandoned. We could not help ask for help from anyone. Meanwhile, everything was so expensive in Japan. We ran out of money quickly,” Thien recalled the days in Japan.

“We failed to contact Vu in Vietnam. When we called the company’s office, we were told that we had to manage ourselves,” he said.

In July 2013, both Trung and Thien called their parents and asked to remit money to help them return home, because they could not continue staying there.

They both affirmed that they did not violate the laws and the school’s regulations and they were not expelled by the school.

Tran Minh Hung, the father of Thien, said his family now owes VND200 billion to a bank. He borrowed the sum of money to arrange the study trip for Thien. Meanwhile, Trinh Thi Minh Nguyet, the mother of Trung, has been put on tenterhooks with the debt of VND300 million.

Some 10 men in the Binh Tan hamlet have gone to Japan through Phuc Son and another consultancy firms.

Tien Phong