Foreign workers staying in Vietnam for longer than three months will be deniedvisas or even forced to leave the country if they do not have work permit or iftheir permit is expired.

This is a new regulation stipulated in anamended draft decree on the management and recruitment of foreign workers in thecountry. The draft decree prepared by the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids andSocial Affairs (MoLISA) will be submitted to the government and if it isapproved it will come into effect as of July 1.

The draft decree alsosays that all illegal workers in Vietnam will be forced to leave the country sixmonths after the decree is in effect if they do not apply for a work permit.

In addition, the draft decree requires Vietnamese employers to reporttheir recruitment, use and management of foreign workers to local departments oflabour, war invalids and social affairs.

Also, foreign enterprises andorganisations have to report their plans to use foreign workers when submittingbidding records to Vietnam’s authorised agencies, says the decree.

Thedraft decree will be a legal foundation for competent agencies to expel illegalworkers and create favourable conditions for local authorities to manage them,said Le Quang Trung, Deputy Director of MoLISA’s Department of Employment,adding that the current decree fails to recommend any punishments for violationsof the law by foreign workers.

According to MoLISA, more than 50,000workers from over 40 countries and territories, mostly in Asia, are working inVietnam, of which only 70 percent have registered and received working permits.The rest are illegal workers, coming into Vietnam as tourists.

Poorconformity to Vietnam’s laws by a number of foreign workers and insufficientmanagement regulations have resulted in instances of social disorder in thepast, said the Ministry.

The number of legal violations by foreignworkers is reportedly going up in the country, mostly acts of public disorder,theft of property and causing intentional harm to others./.