They live in guesthouses, barely able to survive on their wages. They don't have the means to go back to their home towns and Christians don't even manage to go to church on Sundays.
Bien Hoa (AsiaNews) More than 200,000 people work in 17 large industrial areas in Vietnam's Dong Nai province, including 14,000 Catholics. Daily, new guesthouses are set up for the workers, who face social problems and tragedies.
"I came to Bien Hoa City from Vinh Diocese," a 19-year-old girl told AsiaNews. "I have been working here for two years, but I still don't have enough money to go home. I barely earn enough to survive and I cannot even go to church on Sunday."
Another young woman said: "We need a place to sleep. To save money, we must share rooms with others, no matter if they are men or women."
People lack money to survive, but their spirituality is also badly weakened because they have not managed to realize their dream of building a happy family. "We are far our hometown, far from the church, and we must face countless sorrows on top of everything," said one of the workers in Ling Trung II industrial area. "Every day we face painful events: in one factory, two women had to give birth in the toilet, and their babies have not been baptized as yet."
The cost of labour in Vietnam is very cheap, even less than in China, and this attracts foreign companies, especially from Taiwan and South Korea. The minimum wage in Vietnam was 45 to 60 dollars a month, but in 1999, the government brought it down to 35 to 45 dollars, just to encourage foreign investors. Workers like those in Dong Nai are not asked for qualifications or special skills, so they are easily employed and just as easily fired. To keep their work, people must fall in line with all their employers' orders, like working at night from 10pm to 6am.