The first eight Vietnamese workers are expected to return to Libya and resume work on a trial basis next Wednesday, it . . .[restrict]has been reported in Hanoi. Before the 17 February Revolution broke out last year, there were 10,000 Vietnamese working in the country. They were repatriated shortly afterwards.
The returning workers are to be sent to Libya under a pilot project run the Hanoi-based International Manpower Supply and Trade Company (Sona) at the behest of Vietnam’s Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA). They will work in Tripoli for Germany’s engineering company MAN.
“The workers, who worked in Libya for four or five years, will work in the fields of administration, laundry and cooking, with a monthly salary of more than $480,” said Sona chairman Doan Dai Thanh.
“They will work under a contract of between 2-3 years, which can be extended,” he said.
Thanh said that if the labour market in Libya fully reopened he expected the numbers of Vietnamese workers would return to the 10,000- mark. Everything will depending on this trial contract and the situation in Libya, he added.
In preparation for sending Vietnamese workers back to Libya, MoLISA sent a mission to Turkey, the biggest partner of Viet Nam’s worker programme in Libya, to work with the Turkish Ministry of Labour and Social.
A mission from MoLISA and representatives from the foreign ministry plan to visit Libya next week to assess the demand for further workers.
Vietnam’s Deputy Minister for Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Nguyen Thanh Hoa, has been quoted in the Vietnamese press as stating that the political situation in Libya was currently stable and many foreign investors had begun returning to Libya. [/restrict]
