Vietnam’s labour brokerage state allows employee abuse in Saudi Arabia

Ten years have handed for the reason that signing of the Vietnam–Saudi Arabia Bilateral Labour Settlement (BLA) in 2014, which ruled the sending of girls from Vietnam to do home work beneath the Kafala system, a visa sponsorship system frequent in Saudi Arabia and different Gulf nations—one that provides the employees’ kafeel (head of family and employer) full management over the lives of those feminine home staff. In 2019, each governments quietly renewed this 5-year bilateral settlement with none public announcement. The settlement is up for renewal in 2024.

The secrecy across the 2019 renewal was prompted by unhealthy publicity, each native and world, courting again to the launch of the BLA in 2014. Solely a 12 months after the 2014 settlement, Vietnamese labour newspapers had already reported violations of its phrases on the a part of Vietnamese recruitment firms and governmental businesses.

These newspapers delineated grievances and petitions that uncovered the hardships and abuses endured by staff in Saudi Arabia. Between 2019 and 2022, a flurry of studies delivered to gentle violations of home ladies staff’ rights in Saudi Arabia, which got here from varied sources: Vietnamese labour newspapers, a UN particular report on human trafficking in Vietnam, and unbiased worldwide students.

As contract violations continued by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, many staff’ spouses and relations went to the native newspapers to demand the return of their family members who had already completed their two-year contracts in Saudi Arabia however had been caught in lockdowns with no approach to get house. No staff’ pleas have been answered by the Vietnamese Embassy; and the Kafala overseas employee system left it to the kafeels to find out these ladies staff’ fates. But it surely was the demise of an underage lady in 2021, which culminated within the UN particular report on human trafficking in Vietnam, that shocked the world.

Social media movies reproduced by media retailers confirmed H Xuân Siu, a member of the Jarai ethnic minority, pleading with the Labour Attaché stationed at Vietnam’s embassy in Riyadh for assist in escaping repeated bodily beatings to her head by the feminine employer which triggered unconsciousness a number of occasions—however to no avail. She reached out particularly to VINACO, the recruitment firm that despatched her there, in addition to to the 2 Vietnamese labour attachés on the Vietnamese Embassy in Riyadh, about her excruciating ache and the necessity for water, however nobody got here to her rescue. Different native newspapers picked up and uncovered these abuses.

The delicate freedom for the Vietnamese media to report on these abuses ended on the finish of 2021 after these exposures of labour violations in Saudi Arabia negatively affected Vietnam’s stature on the worldwide stage. Within the US Division of State’s 2022 Trafficking-In-Individuals (TIP) report Vietnam was downgraded to Tier 3, the bottom attainable rating, within the report’s evaluation of its compliance with fundamental measures to fight human trafficking. This downgrade has had damaging monetary implications for the Vietnamese state and led to the sudden discharge of the 2 Division of Labour officers on the Vietnamese Embassy in Riyadh. Since 2021, the Vietnamese authorities has positioned an unofficial gag order on the media protection of labour violations in Saudi Arabia, to guard the Vietnamese state’s picture. It’s attainable that the shortage of exposé reportage to the remainder of the world introduced Vietnam again as much as Tier 2 Watch Checklist within the 2023 TIP report.

The aim of this text is to boost consciousness and to name for motion to repair the gaping gap of this BLA earlier than it’s renewed in 2024 for one more 5 years. What’s nonetheless lacking, after ten years of the settlement, is the institution of a Commonplace Employment Contract (SEC) for Vietnamese staff that was required to be created and signed on the onset of this 2014 BLA by the 4 key stakeholders—the Vietnamese employee and the Vietnamese recruitment firm, and the Saudi kafeel and the Saudi recruitment firm).

The aim ought to be to carry these stakeholders accountable to implement and adjust to the rights and obligations of staff and employers. Whereas this requirement was clearly stipulated in Merchandise #8 of the 2014 BLA, it has by no means been applied. In the meantime, the important thing state businesses—the Division of Abroad Labour (DoLAB) and Vietnam Affiliation of Manpower Provide (VAMAS)—proceed to be silent after quite a few inquiries, outreach, and public outrage.

The failure of creating the required SEC, ten years after the signing of the 2014 BLA, is straight linked to sustaining structural violence so as to profit the 2 governments and their recruitment firms, on the expense of the Vietnamese home staff. With none oversight, the long-overdue SEC is much more pressing, now that the BLA is about to be renewed once more.

Structural violence defined

To know the structural violence Vietnamese migrant staff are subjected to, we have to perceive the interconnection of the BLA with the Kafala system, and the shared pursuits of state officers and recruitment firms in each nations that maintain an exploitative transnational labour system.

Kafala visa sponsorship system is prevalent all through the six nations within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). On this system, the heads of family (cum employers) management overseas staff’ entry visas, residence permits in addition to exit permits. Below the Saudi Arabian Kafala system, the Saudi authorities transferred the duty of monitoring overseas home staff to the Saudi Home Recruitment Workplace, which in flip transfers energy to the Saudi kafeel who’ve full authority to handle and profit from the labour of their overseas home staff. Furthermore, the home staff are tied to the unique sponsors who can deport them if they aren’t happy with the employees’ service. My analysis has discovered that these kafeel transferred the Vietnamese staff to many households that weren’t on the unique contracts.

In September 2014, the 2 deputy labour ministers in Vietnam and Saudi Arabia signed this 5-year BLA to ship Vietnamese ladies to work as home staff within the houses of the Saudi households, with an computerized renewal clause. Within the wake of the renewal in 2019 for one more 5 years, VAMAS selected 17 December 17 2020 to kind the Division on the Center East Home Assist Market and appointed its leaders. (The literal translation of VAMAS in Vietnamese is the Affiliation to Export Labor from Vietnam (Hiệp Hội Xuất Khẩu Lao Động Việt Nam).

However unbeknownst to most people, the highest 5 leaders of this division are administrators and presidents of recruitment firms that have been tainted with corruption and unhealthy reputations after  leaving staff stranded and exploited in Saudi Arabia through the COVID-19 disaster. Particularly, VINACO, the recruitment firm that despatched the underage Jrai ethnic minority feminine employee who died in Saudi Arabia (mentioned above), remains to be in energy. My analysis has discovered that Thuận An DMC (previously referred to as Vĩnh Cát) continues to function even with many labour violations. These firms, represented by VAMAS’ Code of Conduct and vetted by the ILO workplace in Vietnam, proceed to get pleasure from their powers with none penalty or oversight of their violations. VINACO’s actions, specifically, have been the other of the Code of Conduct to which it subscribes.

4 years have handed, and these similar leaders proceed to steer this division. It’s lengthy overdue to determine oversight to make them accountable for his or her actions.

On the high degree, the Vietnamese state—performing successfully as a labour brokerage state—works alongside the Saudi Kafala system beneath which migrant home staff are employed. Whereas in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Kafala system supersedes the BLA, reigning supreme by confiscating staff’ passports as quickly as they set foot in Saudi Arabia, controlling staff’ entry visas, residence permits and exit permits. A 2018 Human Rights Watch report discovered that not too long ago launched reforms to migrant labour circumstances in Saudi Arabia don’t apply to home staff, who continued to endure passport confiscations, bodily and sexual abuse, and are prohibited from becoming a member of commerce unions or hanging.

Structural violence is secure as a result of there isn’t a official oversight to observe the implementation of the BLA. The Saudi Recruitment Workplace works straight with the kafeel, who apply for all of the visas to sponsor and management every home employee. The Vietnamese Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs (MoLISA) grants licenses to recruitment firms that go to poor areas in Vietnam to recruit staff. The Division of Abroad Labour (DoLAB), housed within the Vietnamese Embassy in Riyadh, is meant to work carefully with VAMAS to resolve Vietnamese staff’ grievances whereas working abroad. All of them have turned a blind eye to repeated complaints lodged by the Vietnamese staff there. This method protects notoriously corrupt recruitment firms, which goal not solely ladies in poor rural elements of Vietnam’s north-central provinces, but additionally ethnic minorities within the central highlands.

The ILO workplace in Hanoi has been offering technical help to MoLISA and DoLAB and dealing carefully with VAMAS, however turning a blind eye to the unhealthy “Code of Conduct” of many VAMAS member recruitment firms that failed to guard staff in Saudi Arabia.  Contained in the kafeel’s houses, most of those feminine staff undergo, as unfree labour, from being transferred from one home to a different (which is not allowed beneath the BLA), leading to precarity, lack of pay, cycle of debt, and dispossession of their rights. (I’ve reached out to the ILO’s workplace in Hanoi however obtained no response. I’ve additionally communicated quite a few occasions with some ILO workers, particularly in regards to the standing of this standardised employment contract kind, to no avail.)

New narratives from the Vietnamese state

What we see now because the 2024 renewal of the BLA is imminent, are the brand new narratives of the Vietnamese state, specializing in commerce and funding and export of high-skilled staff. Since 2022, the official narratives have been selling bilateral agreements between Vietnam and Saudi Arabia on commerce and funding. Particularly, Saudi Arabia has wished to import 10 million extra overseas short-term staff from many nations—together with Vietnam—particularly within the areas of producing industries, power, well being, and tourism.  The BLA has targeted on two-way tourism, the export of Vietnamese halal meals merchandise to Saudi Arabia, and the usage of renewable power. Whereas Saudi Arabia has been exporting primarily chemical-related merchandise, resembling plastics and liquefied petroleum fuel, Vietnam has primarily exported cellphones, agricultural merchandise resembling rice, cashew nuts, fruit and veggies.

Furthermore, directives coming from the prime minister and varied ministries (labour, commerce, and trade) have been specializing in coaching expert staff to go to work within the Center East (Saudi Arabia). Particularly, MoLISA has pressured the significance of “deciding on good employers, good contracts which can be appropriate to Vietnamese staff, and utilizing skilled ability units of the employees as a foundation for negotiations so as to increase the wage and different rights and advantages for staff.” The response of recruitment firms belonging to VAMAS pledges compliance with their leaders’ directives:

We acknowledge the Minister’s main advice and pledge to develop the Center East (labour) market in line with the essence of the directive of “not sending staff there in any respect prices” however as a substitute specializing in coaching staff and assessing and deciding on rigorously [Saudi] counterparts, offering contract, supporting and managing staff through the time they work abroad, so as to guarantee their labour rights.

However how in regards to the working and dwelling circumstances of the largely low-skilled staff, particularly the ladies who work as domestics behind closed doorways, unseen and unacknowledged, within the homes of their kafeel employers? As of October 2023, there have been nonetheless about 5,000 Vietnamese staff in Saudi Arabia doing masonry, development, mechanics, home work, chauffeuring; a number of are engineers and professionals. However there isn’t a data in official information retailers or authorities notices, studies, or some other publicly accessible databases in regards to the working circumstances of those largely low-skilled short-term staff.

Conclusion

It’s ironic that over 5,000 export staff in Saudi Arabia aren’t accounted for on the listing of exports from Vietnam, proudly accompanying the Vietnamese prime minister’s announcement of commerce and funding talks with Saudi Arabia.

Vietnam can study from good practices within the case of the Philippines and Cambodia. These two nations signed their BLAs with Saudi Arabia in 2013 and 2016 respectively. However these two nations instantly protected their staff by creating and utilizing the Commonplace Employment Contract for his or her home staff in the identical 12 months that every nation signed the BLA with Saudi Arabia.

Utilizing the identical format, their Commonplace Employment Contract (SEC) has two columns in two languages: English and Arabic, clearly spelled out contact data of the Saudi employer (represented by the Saudi Recruitment Company), the home employee (represented by her/his recruitment company) and the location of employment. All of the rights and advantages of staff are said clearly on the SEC for correct implementation. And on the finish, 4 signatures are required to acknowledge all of the phrases said on this SEC: the Saudi employer, the Saudi recruitment company, the home employee and their recruitment company. This degree of transparency is essential to make it possible for the recruitment businesses are held accountable to supervise and implement the contract adequately. Furthermore, this SEC supplies the framework for staff to grieve and/or to complain when their rights aren’t applied and their contract is grossly violated.

From these SECs, the rights of Cambodian and Filipino home staff are protected and they’re even assured a one-month paid trip at their house nations, if their 2-year contracts are completed efficiently and prolonged by mutual settlement between the employees and the employers.

Because it stands, structural violence—enabled by the Vietnamese labour brokerage state and the Kafala system’s failure to correctly monitor the BLA—denies social welfare and safety for Vietnamese ladies home staff, promised within the BLA. As demonstrated by finest practices from its Southeast Asian neighbours in Cambodia and the Philippines, the Vietnamese and Saudi governments can do it proper by establishing and utilizing the long-overdue SEC to supply oversight and to guard the rights and advantages of Vietnamese home staff.

Nevertheless, whereas creating the SEC generally is a easy first step for the Vietnamese and Saudi governments to take, one ought to be cautious that SEC is probably not an efficient instrument to make sure transnational home labour rights. Findings from a 2023 examine based mostly on a survey of Filipino and Indonesian ladies who have been beforehand employed as migrant home staff within the Arab Gulf states discovered that greater than half of the households subjected these staff to not less than one type of mistreatment, starting from extreme working hours, late fee of wage, denial of at some point off per week, and even restricted entry to meals and medical care, in addition to bodily and emotional abuse.

An neutral third social gathering, such because the unions or some civil society organisations, is required to supervise the implementation of the SEC to make sure that transnational home labour rights are upheld.