Thousands of expatriate sailors face risks and difficulties

 

VietNamNet Bridge – The local public is paying special attention to the sunken Korean fishing vessel in the Antarctic, which had 11 Vietnamese sailors. At present, thousands of Vietnamese sailors are working on foreign ships and facing lots of difficulties and risks.

 

Three Vietnamese sailors may be dead in Antarctica sunken ship

 

A dangerous job

 

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Huong, mother of sailor Nguyen Van Thanh, one of the three missing sailors on the Korean ship.
Before the recent tragedy, there were other expatriate Vietnamese sailors who died in shipwrecks.

 

On November 29 2007, a Taiwanese fishing ship departed from a Thai port with 20 sailors, including five Vietnamese. The sea was sunken near Malacca. Luckily, five Vietnamese sailors were rescued and returned home safely.

 

On November 9 2008, another Taiwanese fishing boat was sunken in the southern sea of Gaoxiong City. Of the 28 dead sailors, eight were Vietnamese.

 

On June 2 2010, a South Korean fishing vessel was hit by a big ship and sank in the Korean sea. One Vietnamese sailor died and two other were missing. All of them came from the central province of Ha Tinh.

 

According to manpower exporting companies, of the 40 jobs in the world for which Vietnam supplies labor forces, working as a sailor is the hardest and the riskiest job.

 

Low income

 

South Korea is the main market for Vietnamese sailors. By June 2010 more than 1000 Vietnamese sailors were working for Korean fishing ships.

 

Taiwan is another big market for Vietnamese sailors. Before 2003, Taiwan employed up to nearly 10,000 Vietnamese sailors. At present, nearly 1000 Vietnamese sailors are working on Taiwanese vessels.

 

Though this job is very hard, expatriate sailors earn lower income in comparison with other jobs, $180/month for young sailors and $210/month for experienced sailors. The income of sailors is 4-5 times lower than that for factory workers.

 

Sailors are also in the group of workers who face high risks of maltreatment and enslavement.

 

Assistance for families of sailors in distress

 

Republic of Korea and New Zealand rescue ships will bring Vietnamese survivors, said the Department for Managing Guest Workers.

 

The Vietnamese diplomatic mission in New Zealand will join the businesses that hired these sailors in receiving the seven surviving sailors and addressing related issues, the department said.

 

The department reported that the Vietnamese labor export companies involved had already purchased risk insurance for the sailors on the sunken In Sung 1 Ship, which would nominate a compensation of US$13,000 each person.

 

A representative of the department added that the labor export businesses involved had officially informed the victims’ families of the incident and are seeking to assist the families of the killed and missing sailors.

 

There is at least one sailor dead and three missing in the Antarctic, all from Ky Anh district in the central province of Ha Tinh. The body of the Vietnamese sailor who died in the accident, Nguyen Tuong, has been taken to New Zealand. Meanwhile, the seven rescued Vietnamese sailors are receiving special medical care on the two rescue ships and they remain in stable condition.

 

The Department for Managing Guest Workers also said the Korean and New Zealand rescue teams have announced they had ceased searching for the other 17 missing sailors, including 3 Vietnamese, because there is no signal of their survival.

 

PV