US embassy cable - 04HANOI1074

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 001074 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR G/TIP, EAP/BCLTV, EAP/RSP, INL/AAE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, KWMN, KCRM, ELAB, VM, OMIG, LABOR, TIP 
SUBJECT:  DAEWOOSA CASE NOT APPROPRIATE FOR 2004 TIP REPORT 
 
REF: A. State 27013; B. State 7869; C. Taylor-Moeling email 
 
4-13-04; D. Hanoi 786; E. Hanoi 336; F. 02 Hanoi 1061 
 
1. (U) Summary: The GVN cracked down hard on the Vietnamese 
labor companies involved in the Daewoosa case, including 
jail terms for some executives, who publicly acknowledged 
their wrongdoing.  Since that response to illegal 
trafficking-related activity in Vietnam, the GVN has 
reformed its labor export laws further, and enforces them 
consistently.  The Dawoosa case is not relevant to the 
current situation in Vietnam and should be neither the basis 
for a "watch list" designation nor mentioned in the report. 
End summary. 
 
2. (U) In response to ref C, Post conducted further research 
into the two parastatal labor companies cited in the Kil Soo 
Lee case, IMS and Travel Company 12.  As Department has 
noted, both are state-owned enterprises.  IMS is under the 
Ministry of Trade, and Travel Company 12 is under the 
General Department of Tourism.  (Note: all labor export 
companies, state-owned or private, must operate according to 
Vietnam's Enterprise Law.  The "parent" ministries do not 
have a role in designing strategy or in day-to-day 
operations.  End note.)  According to the Ministry of Labor, 
Invalids, and Social Affairs (MOLISA), IMS continues to 
operate.  Travel Company 12, however, has had its license to 
operate a labor export business suspended indefinitely. 
Other businesses of this company still run normally. 
 
3. (U) Ref c stated that abuses perpetrated by the two labor 
export companies were "condoned and directly facilitated by 
the GVN."  Press reporting and Embassy reporting have noted 
that individual executives associated with IMS were charged, 
convicted, and punished for their activities related to the 
Kil Soo Lee case.  IMS' director, Le Cong Tam, received a 
six-year sentence for his involvement in the case (later 
reduced to three years on appeal).  His chief accountant, 
Dao Thi Hoai Thu, received a three-sentence. (ref F.) 
According to contemporary press records, the chief 
prosecutor of the Hanoi People's Procuracy argued in that 
case that "IMS did not make adequate efforts to assess 
Daewoosa and understand the living standards and system in 
American Samoa before sending 50 workers there. . . a 
reckless disregard for careful research led to the signing 
of an unsecured labor contract with Daewoosa."  The court, 
which in Vietnam does not operate truly independently of the 
government or Party, accepted this argument.  The director 
of TC12, Nguyen Van Khoa, was not charged with a crime but 
was fired "as a result of the lack of responsibility for 
taking timely protective actions for the laborers." 
 
4. (U) According to Deputy Director of MOLISA's Department 
of Overseas Labor Nguyen Ngoc Quynh, the executives of TC12 
and IMS were not prosecuted under trafficking legislation 
because Vietnamese laws on trafficking do not explicitly 
refer to labor exploitation, but instead focus on 
trafficking and trading in women and children.  Current laws 
also do not refer to labor export abuse as trafficking in 
persons, but nonetheless criminalize it.  (Note: expanding 
the definition of trafficking in persons to cover men as 
well as women and children is a recommendation in the 
Ministry of Justice's recent assessment of Vietnamese laws 
relating to TIP, reported in ref D.  End note.)  Ref E is a 
discussion of the new Vietnamese labor code, which is 
clearer (and stricter) than the laws under which the 
executives from IMS were convicted and the head of TC12 
dismissed. 
 
5. (U) Specific changes in the Vietnamese labor code since 
the Kil Soo Lee case provide more detail on the eligibility 
conditions for the issuance of labor export licenses.  In 
addition, Circular 22 (providing guidelines on 
implementation of provisions of the Government's Decree No. 
81/2003/ND-CP dated 17 July 2003 on dispatching Vietnamese 
workers to work abroad) stipulates details on punishment 
measures for those labor export businesses that violate 
Decree 81.  According to Quynh, this circular is the most 
detailed document to date on punishment measures.  If 
required, Post can provide a copy of these decrees. 
 
6. (U) Comment: Post hopes that the above information is 
useful to the Department in assessing the GVN's attitude 
towards trafficking in persons through labor exploitation 
and in the actions it has taken to punish the offenders and 
curb future abuses.  We believe that this case, in which the 
relevant events occurred in 2000 and 2001, is inappropriate 
for inclusion in a report that is (per ref B) intended to 
cover developments from March 2003-March 2004.  Far more 
relevant to Vietnam's performance in the fight against 
trafficking in persons is the concerted effort the GVN has 
made during this timeframe to draft, publicize, and 
implement new legislation and regulations to promote the 
welfare and protection of its overseas workers and police 
the system of recruiting and sending them.  We note as well 
that the GVN has made a very strong effort to put the new 
legislation into action, which is both significant and 
unusual in a system where implementation usually lags 
policy. 
 
7. (U) The conditions for Vietnamese workers at the time of 
the 2004 TIP report's release are not similar to the 
conditions for exported Vietnamese laborers at the time of 
the events related to the Daewoosa case.  Vietnam's new 
labor code - which addresses specifically the issue of labor 
export abuses and which establishes serious penalties for 
the violation of worker rights or the exploitation of 
Vietnamese workers, and which has already led to 
strengthened enforcement of existing regulations and laws 
with accompanying sanctions and criminal convictions for 
businesses and individuals, along with major publicity to 
maximize the deterrent effect - must be considered as a 
"significant effort" to bring Vietnam into compliance with 
minimum standards as set out in the TVPRA. 
 
8. (U) Vietnam has a trafficking in persons problem, a 
developing country's lack of resources, and an inadequate 
legal code that is currently being reformed.  Therefore, 
post concurs with a recommendation that Vietnam be placed in 
Tier 2 for the March 2003-March 2004 period.  In general, 
however, post assesses the GVN's efforts to overcome its 
trafficking problem as significant on a number of different 
levels.  In particular, post believes that the GVN's work on 
labor reform, specifically the reform of labor export 
regulations, and its relatively unusual success in 
implementing and enforcing these regulations, is a notable 
achievement.  The events of 2000-2001 as uncovered in the 
Daewoosa case concluded in early 2003 are not relevant to 
Vietnam's current TIP situation, not reflective of the 
current status of Vietnamese law and practice, and therefore 
not a reasonable trigger for a "watch list" (or, as 
described in ref A, a "weak 2") designation.  End comment. 
BURGHARDT