Leaders of Vietnamese and Malaysian trade unions agreed here on Monday to cooperate in protecting Vietnamese migrant workers in Malaysia, one of the top four destination countries for Vietnamese workers.
Vietnamese, Malaysian trade unions ink deal on protection of migrant workers
Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2015 7:15pm
HANOI, March 16 (Xinhua) — Leaders of Vietnamese and Malaysian trade unions agreed here on Monday to cooperate in protecting Vietnamese migrant workers in Malaysia, one of the top four destination countries for Vietnamese workers.
With support from the International Labor Organization (ILO), the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor and the Malaysian Trade Union Congress signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), covering a range of issues, including bilateral cooperation on labor migration, said ILO on its website.
The MoU is expected to open a new chapter in the cooperation between the two trade unions in the area of labor migration, which will become increasingly important due to demographic changes, income gaps and economic integration to be particularly pushed forward by the introduction of the ASEAN Economic Community at the end of this year, stated ILO.
Vietnam started to send workers to Malaysia in 2002. The two countries signed an MoU on recruitment of Vietnamese migrant workers in Malaysia in December 2003.
Over the past 10 years, Vietnam has sent to Malaysia more than 220,000 workers, with 80,000 Vietnamese nationals working in 12 out of 13 states of Malaysia, mainly in manufacturing, garment and construction, according to ILO.