Yesterday the Binh Phuoc Province Economic Zone Management Board reported that they have forced 204 Chinese workers to leave Vietnam since they failed to meet required criteria for obtaining a work permit from the provincial Department of Labor, War Invalid and Social Affairs.

In March 2011 China’s Fujian Industrial Equipment Installation Co Ltd sent 237 Chinese nationals to Binh Phuoc to work at construction site for the wood processing plant of MDF VRG Dongwha Joint Stock Company, which is located in the Minh Hung III Industrial Park in Chon Thanh District.

Of these workers, 33 are managers and executives and the remaining 204 are untrained laborers. The company later carried out procedures to get permits for these managers and executives, but failed to do so for the rest.

Their personal records have not met requirements under Vietnam law, so they have yet to be granted work permits, the board explained.

However, for the sake of the project, the board had allowed the 204 laborers to continue working until the company fulfilled its bid to build the plant.

Now that the building has been completed, the board has forced them to leave Vietnam, and they have all officially departed the province.

Meanwhile, Truong Dai Hung, director of the Binh Thuan Province Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, said that the agency has found 65 Chinese employees working without permits at the Vinh Tan 2 Thermal Power Plant.

They are among 239 foreign workers, most of whom are Chinese, who have been sent to the province by four Chinese contractors related to the plant, Hung said.

The agency has reported its finding to the provincial authorities for resolution, Hung said.

Earlier this month, 229 other Chinese laborers were found working without permits in a project at the Cong Thanh Cement Plant in Thanh Hoa Province. Most of these unlicensed workers are unskilled and were sent to Vietnam in late 2010. They also failed to meet requirements for work permits, local authorities said.