VietNamNet Bridge – Like it or not, many labourers who want to work in South Korea are being tarred with the same brush as those already there who have quit their jobs without proper reason or overstayed when their work contracts expired.

Nguyen Van Cuong quit his job as an electrician at a joint-venture company and returned to his home in Cam Nam Commune, central Ha Tinh Province, to study Korean. His younger brother, Nguyen Van My, has also began to study Korean after graduating from Da Nang Construction Technical College.

Their father, Nguyen Minh Tan, borrowed nearly VND15 million (US$750) to pay for tuition. "I gave my house and garden as security to the bank in the hope my sons would be able to go to South Korea to work," Tan said. But all the plans have fallen in a heap.

The labour ministry's decision has left Tan's family and several thousand people in central Ha Tinh and Nghe An provinces in a precarious position. "Our debts will multiply and we do not know how to manage the situation," said the father.

About 200 out of the 300 young people in Cam Nam Commune once had jobs with stable incomes. Having heard that senior guest workers were able to earn a thousand dollars or more a month in South Korea, they studied Korean and applied to take the language test. However, they have all been knocked back.

"The commune doesn't know how to support them if they aren't allowed to take the test," an official at Cam Nam Commune People's Committee said. The story is similar in 23 other communes.

How would ministry officials themselves feel if they themselves were also blamed for the sins of their neighbours? While Government officers, specifically those in the labour ministry, have been ordered to reduce the number of illegal Vietnamese workers in Seoul, they are expected to solve the problem without persecuting the innocent.

However, the head of the Overseas Labour Management Department, Nguyen Ngoc Quynh, said it was not right to let one rotten apple spoil the whole box. He said South Korea recruited a large number of foreign workers and offered stable and high salaries.

While he may be right, the ministry has created a situation where undisciplined workers have deprived thousands of would-be guest labourers and their families of their legitimate expectations and led to the loss of a huge amount of remittance money. Personally I think it is unfair to place a blanket ban on some would-be guest workers because the ministry can't manage the situation properly. And I wonder how many "banned" workers will be forced to bribe officials to have the addresses on their application forms transferred to "clean" localities.

Chairman of the Cam Nam Commune People's Committee Nguyen Van Duong said hundreds of people gathered in front of the committee head office last week, asking for authorities to help their children. "Exporting labourers to work abroad can be one of the strengths of a commune," Duong said, "Banning new applicants from taking the Korean language test just because they were born in the same town is unreasonable."

Quynh, from the Overseas Labour Management Department, said it was true that the ministry had sent a document to cities and provinces banning Korean language tests for applicants from certain provinces, he said it was only a proposal and that the ministry left it to cities and provinces to decide.

However, the Ha Tinh provincial Party committee secretary, Nguyen Thanh Binh, said the province would not enforce the ban if the ministry had given localities this choice. "We would prefer to ask families to place their land-use rights certificates (or Red Book) as security before their children went abroad," he said.