Burdened with debt, abandoning dreams of "changing one's life" because the path to Germany, Japan... is complicated

Gullible, lose money

Ms. D. (from Tay Ninh province) said that her brother saw a recruitment notice to work in Korea in September 2022. The family is in a difficult situation, her brother was happy when he thought he could earn money to help the whole family change their lives.

At first, the broker announced that they would pay 6 million VND for the procedure, and there would be no other fees. However, not long after, the broker announced that they would pay an additional 50 million VND to prove their financial status. This amount was promised to be returned after completion.

Racing to many Northeast Asian countries to work, many people cannot avoid the "lost money, suffered" scam trap (Illustration: Contributor).

"We thought that was it, but they asked us to give them another 30 million VND so we could fly to Korea right away. The family was also impatient because they had already given us some money, so they reluctantly borrowed more. They knew my brother really wanted to work, so they lured him over and over again," Ms. D. said indignantly.

Having "jumped in", if the worker does not continue to follow the instructions, he or she will lose the deposit. However, after paying the required amount, what Ms. D's family received was silence, and a debt that they do not know when they will be able to pay off. Even though they posted on social media for help, or tried to contact the broker, nearly 90 million VND spent "disappeared".

Ms. N. confided that not only her brother but many people were scammed with the same trick. In the social network chat group called "Being scammed in Korea" created by Ms. D., there are 6 people in similar situations, scammed with amounts ranging from 27 to 284 million VND.

Many Vietnamese workers have been scammed out of hundreds of millions of dong because they trusted unclear labor export brokerage organizations (Illustration: Contributor).

Agreeing to pay 70 million VND to avoid being scammed more, Mr. TP had to "swallow the bitter pill" because of the fraud of the labor export brokerage center. Also following the instructions, he paid the above amount. The broker promised many times the day to go to Germany to work, but Mr. P. waited forever and never saw it.

Realizing signs of fraud, Mr. P. failed to ask for the deposit, so he had to accept to give up the money to avoid getting "dipped" deeper.

"The initial contract was 250 million VND, including tuition, accommodation, visa, health check-up, and airfare. But during the course, I noticed many suspicious things. The teachers at the center had incorrect pronunciation and grammar and often invited students to have fun and party outside," said Mr. P.

According to Mr. P., some of his friends agreed to pay the entire amount but when they went to Germany, they were "shocked" about the job.

"When we arrived, my friend and some others were cut off from the broker. They did not provide us with any information about where to live, where to work, or anything else. They only provided us with a 20m2 house for 7 people to live in. The salary for the job was not 100 million VND/month, but only 19 million VND," Mr. P. was upset.

Cost 200 million VND to go to Japan?

Bitterly, Ms. Tran Yen (from Hau Giang ) recalled the time when she had to work hard for 3 years to pay off the debt she was defrauded of when she was sent to work abroad. Worse, during that time, the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, and with no job, Ms. Yen had to grit her teeth and watch the debt "grow" gradually.

The situation of Vietnamese workers falling into labor export fraud traps has been happening for a long time (Illustration: Contributor).

In October 2018, Ms. Yen passed the interview for the nursing program in Korea. She applied through the source company. According to the agreement, when the application was approved, this company would send her to another company to learn the language and receive vocational training.

However, in reality, that training company did not have a license to provide workers for the nursing industry. After 6 months of studying there, Ms. Yen was shocked when she was informed that "the flight date was not determined".

"The truth is that the company does not have a license. When I first started studying, I paid money to another company, so the training company told me to go back there to get the money. At first, they promised that there would be no cost to go, but when I asked to get the money back, the place that received the money said that I withdrew my application, so I only got back 32 million out of the 58 million VND I paid," said Ms. Yen.

Seeing Ms. Yen's reaction, the brokerage center said it would pay another 10 million VND after 3 months, so that Ms. Yen would commit not to apply to another center.

"They wrote me a receipt, but 3 months later, the words on that strange receipt disappeared. Even though I had a photo of the receipt with the words intact, they still refused to pay me. So I got back 32 million of the 58 million VND, lost 10 million VND for the receipt, and they said they would not pay the remaining 16 million VND for food and interview training expenses," said Ms. Yen.

After being scammed, Ms. Yen was sent by her family to Hanoi to find a way to work in Japan. It cost her 9,000 USD (about 212 million VND) to get to Japan, but here, she was shocked by the "pie in the sky".

In addition to choosing the right profession when exporting labor, workers need to clearly understand information surrounding this foreign labor category (Photo: Contributor).

"After arriving in Japan, I realized that the salary was much lower than the initial offer. Around me, there were many people who worked for a while and then escaped to work illegally, then were discovered and deported, causing harm to their whole family and those who came after them," Yen sighed.
The Japanese business side was actually "shocked" by the information about the cost of more than 200 million VND as well as the "drawn" salary of the workers.

Ms. Yen believes that those incidents came from the brokerage center. In fact, while she was still studying, she saw the unit being investigated by the authorities, and candidates were also told "not to communicate or tell anyone before being allowed to... go".

The Department of Overseas Labor Management, Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, warns workers to be wary of information inviting and scamming workers to work abroad.

People who want to work abroad need to contact directly with businesses licensed to operate services sending Vietnamese workers to work abroad under contract.

The Department of Overseas Labor Management emphasized that businesses providing services to send workers to work abroad under contracts are only allowed to organize preliminary recruitment and selection of workers after being approved by the Department of Overseas Labor Management to prepare labor resources or register labor supply contracts.

Source link: https://dantri.com.vn/lao-dong-viec-lam/ganh-no-do-uoc-mo-doi-doi-vi-duong-di-duc-di-nhat-lat-leo-20230725170520792.htm