Photo: vietnamnet.vn

Assistance to 108 Vietnamese fishermen arrested in Indonesia for illegal fishing will be the first action of a fund launched in early July to assist and protect Vietnamese while living abroad.

The fund’s director Duong Chi Dung, who is also director of the Foreign Ministry’s Consulate Affairs Department, said the fund will buy tickets for any unwell fishermen to return home first.

The Vietnamese citizen and legal entity protection fund was set up one year ago with an initial 20 billion VND sum to enable government agencies abroad to protect Vietnamese citizens and entities and assist them in troubles beyond their capacity.

Since Vietnam began its open-door policy more than 20 years ago, the number of Vietnamese going abroad, both legally and illegally, has been on the rise.

According to an official from the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) Hanoi branch, easy migration is accompanied with risks, and in addition to victims of trafficking, the most vulnerable groups are guest workers, women getting married to foreigners, and fishermen.

According to Dung, in 2007 alone, more than 650 Vietnamese fishermen were arrested for illegal fishing. Many of them were supported by the government to return home after they were released.

Deputy Foreign Minister Dao Viet Trung says the protection of citizens is one of Vietnam’s external policies for agencies abroad.

Trung said over many years the government has helped many arrested fishermen, guest workers in war-ravaged places, and labour disputes.

However, limited budget is always the main difficulty for the work. In the situation, IOM is the international organisation that has worked tirelessly to give financial assistance to Vietnamese citizens who find themselves in trouble abroad.

Recently, in March 2008, the organisation helped many Vietnamese guest workers return from Jordan. Two years ago, another 200 guest workers also received assistance after the war broke out in Lebanon, and in 1991, 17,000 Vietnamese workers in Iraq were returned home with funding from IOM.

“The fund will be a tool that raises the ability for Vietnamese agencies abroad to initiate protecting and assisting its citizens,” Deputy FM Trung said.

Source: VNA