Evacuation and Return Assistance for Stranded and Vulnerable Migrants in Syria

IOM Assists Vietnamese Migrant Woman to Safely Return Home after 6 Years of Exploitation in Syria.
Hanoi, 01.11.2013

Ms. H., a Vietnamese single mother in her late 20ies from a northern province, left Vietnam in 2007 in order to earn money abroad to financially support of her young daughter and old mother.

H. was recruited by an unlicensed female broker in Hanoi who originated from her home town, - a person she trusted. Being impressed by the money that migrants seem to be able to make, H. decided to also try her luck. She paid USD 2200 to the broker upfront to be sent to Syria for work; her mother had to take a loan, - USD 2200 being a very high sum for a modest Vietnamese family! However, with the promise of getting a monthly salary of 350 USD with work in the industrial sector in Syria, H. calculated that such investment could be earned back, and a certain profit for the family secured, over a period of three years.

In Syria, a Vietnamese woman picked H. up at the airport and brought her to a Syrian job placement company representative. He revealed to H. that she would have to work as a housemaid for a family in Aleppo - and this for a much lower salary than previously promised - only USD 150 per month. When H. tried to protest she was threatened to be beaten and so she finally gave in. She had to sign a labour contract with the company in a language (Arabic) she could not read; the broker just explained that the duration of the contract would be 3 years.

As a housemaid in Aleppo, H. was treated correctly by a first family; however when she tried to send her first savings home via the broker in Syria, only half of the sum arrived with her family in Viet Nam. All in all, H. effectively earned a total of just USD 550 during her first 3 years of continuous work in Aleppo; she was only able to send money back home to her family twice.

After three years, H. was sent back to the recruitment company; she thought that she could finally return home. But this should not happen… The broker told her that there were no flights to Vietnam and that she had to wait. Week after week, the broker delayed her return and forced H. to work without pay, first at his own home for almost 8 months, and then again for other families. When H. was placed into other families she got increasingly mistreated. She was not allowed to leave the house. When she wanted to buy something for her daily needs, she first had to ask her “owner” for money and permission. She could leave the house accompanied only. The Syrian broker received her entire salary, promising that it would all be handed over to H. in cash when she returns to Vietnam. In reality it turned out that all was kept, H. was effectively forced working without any salary during her last 3 years in Syria. It also became almost impossible for H. to get in contact with her family back in Viet Nam during this period. When her old mother asks the broker in Vietnam to help bringing H. back to Viet Nam, the broker requested USD 1000; but even after H.’s family in Vietnam managed to scramble together USD 500 for the broker in Vietnam, nothing happens. H. was effectively stuck in Syria.

In the meantime, civil-war broke out in Syria, further complicating H.’s situation. However, not being allowed to get out of the house and effectively being cut off from information, H.’s already dire daily life routine did not change a lot.  Back in Viet Nam, H.’s mother was severely suffering for years, not being able to contact her daughter and also due to all the associated economic hardship.

Luckily, H. eventually got the chance to call back home, - the head of yet another family where she was placed had become sympathetic to her situation. Thanks to contacts with another family in her home province, H.’s mother has been put in contact with the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Consular Department (MoFA) and with the International Organization for Migration (IOM). MoFA and IOM cooperate closely to assist vulnerable Vietnamese abroad, helping them to return home notably from conflict regions.       

In late October 2013 H. has been brought from Aleppo to Damascus by IOM Syria. In Damascus the Philippines Embassy provided shelter and protection for a view days (there is no Vietnamese Embassy in Damascus). The Vietnamese Embassy in Turkey in the meantime issued the needed travel document (laissez-passer), - the Vietnamese Ambassador in Turkey strongly supporting the entire operation. IOM organized with the Syrian authority the needed exit permit.

On 30.10.2013, H. joined an IOM humanitarian convoy that brought stranded migrants overland from Damascus to neighboring Lebanon. In Lebanon, Vietnamese consulate staff and IOM provided support. The same day, H. boarded an IOM-organized flight from Beirut (Lebanon) via Doha and Bangkok to Hanoi. IOM Vietnam informed the family and organizes the reception at Hanoi’s Noi Bai airport.   

When H. arrived in Hanoi on October the 31st   in the afternoon, her now 9 year old daughter, her mother, some friends, and IOM Vietnam staff welcome her. Emotions were high: H. and her daughter have not seen each other during years. H. has been away for six years earning just USD 550; even the initial financial investment has not been recovered.

But H. is alive and reunited with her family. “I am so happy to be back in Vietnam. I want to express my deepest thanks to IOM and MoFA Vietnam for helping me. I also want to send a message to my fellow Vietnamese: please be careful with job offers to work abroad - do not trust people so easily. Human traffickers are around and I am not the only case trafficked to Syria.”

Florian G. Forster, Chief of Mission of the IOM in Vietnam comments: “I am very glad that we could help. H.’s case illustrates well the mechanisms of the horrendous exploitation Vietnamese migrants abroad can be subjected to. H. apparently was tricked into a situation where she could be exploited over years. We have seen similar cases. It is now the job of the Vietnamese law enforcement authorities to investigate and to determine whether charges on the basis of human trafficking or other articles of the penal code can be pressed against perpetrators. H. should also get official assistance to recover, reintegrate and start an income generating activity to earn a living for herself and her family.”

Today, H. celebrates her 29th birthday. “Being back with my family in my homeland Vietnam is the most precious gift. I feel reborn again.”

For more information, please contact: Florian G. Forster, Chief of Mission, IOM Viet Nam 
Email: fforster@iom.int