A NEW EXPERIENCE 

Dong Xuyen

Having heard much about the Vietnamese brides and workers whom are living and working in Taiwan, I did not expect that I would have the experience of meeting them in person. Life is so busy with work, family duties, attending school, and all other volunteer work that I am involved with in the states, that I did not think I would be in Taiwan. Without the support of friends and family, this summer’s August would still be a probably pretty mundane battling for social justice on the home front. But this August, I have had an entirely new experience.

I found the first irst day in Taiwan’s air port, with the climate much similar to Viet Nam’s, warm, sunny, and humid. Here, I have met Father Nguyen Van Hung who took me through the experience of helping the Vietnamese workers whom were abused. I met M. when she was being brought to the air port by the employment agency to return her to Viet Nam after her employer passed away. M. came from a poor village of Viet Nam. She saved and borrowed from all sources to raise several thousand US dollars to pay for the employment agency who arranged employment for her in Taiwan. M’s contract was two years, but the employment agency did not find another employment for her and forced her to return to Viet Nam despite her Visa and contract allowing for more time working.

Further investigation reveals that the employment agency never honors the contracts because the pay for workers like M. must be increased after the first year. M.’s dream is to sacrifice two years away from her family to raise money to pay for her husband’s medical care and for her child to attend school. With six months of pay, the employment agency has collected pay for half of the contract, M. didn’t even break even to pay her debts.

Before meeting with us, M. was not aware of the illegal act of the employment agency. She was coerced to sign the termination of the contract. The employment agency has kept all her personal identifications including her money. Like many other workers, M. was stripped of her rights and returned as a property of the Taiwanese employment agency. When M. met with Father Hung and me, Father Hung explained to M. her rights, and we encouraged her to free herself from the proprietary of the Taiwanese as a slave. We had to struggle with the employment agency and Taiwanese police to help M. to be freed after two long hours.

M’s story is common and is much less serious compared to other workers whom are residing at the Father Hung’s Center, which I called the “ Center of Compassion”. In these past few days, I have listened to these young women, young mothers whom held back their tears and pain to be separated away from home to work so that their children have opportunity to obtain an education, and to realize their dream of having a simple shelter to live in their home village.

These young mothers were beaten, brutally raped to the point that they can’t even speak but shake in fear and tears. They joined me at the Center with their hearts yearning for loved ones at home. They cried when hearing their children speak on the phone: “Mommy, come home to cook for us, dad slept and forgot to cook, and we are very hungry.”. The acts of savagery and brutality that these women endured gave me a disgusted feeling that I see on the street even though I know that this is just my own feeling. These women vomited and feinted when recalling how they were raped and beaten by the Taiwanese employment brokers. Many other women were sold to other agencies and were forced into prostitution, but they adamantly refused.

The stories of these women are also the stories of many young people who are trying to earn a living in Taiwan to help their parents and younger siblings to obtain an education. These young people came from the countryside where even rice is scarce that they often drink porridge with vegetables. They are often the oldest, and come to Taiwan with a dream of saving their family out of poverty. These workers are often subjected to 20 hours of work per day. Many of these young people are suffering of hunger, exhaustion, deterioration of mental status due lack of rest and proper nutrition. Worse, their salary is often kept and stolen by the employment agency. There are those who work for the whole year but did not get paid, some even lost all year of salary. It is so painful to see those whom were injured in the work place such as loss of vision, loss of limb, but the employer never compensated them fairly. Some wanted to escape by jumping out of high buildings where they being held captive as slaves for months. These young people break their spines, legs yet still empty handed. We have met those who escaped into the forest and survived by eating leaves.

I met L., a 25 years old Vietnamese bride in Taiwan who is in the seventh month of her pregnancy of her second child. The sister of her Taiwanese husband had kidnapped her first child because this woman is childless, and her Taiwanese husband is abandoning L. L. cooked banana desert for everyone at the Center of Compassion and I would never forget her painful story.

Writing to this point, my tears keep falling uncontrollably for I feel the pain and humiliation that my fellow Vietnamese sisters have to endure. I think about their family living in poverty and hunger. How painful it is for my homeland and my people!

To me, these people are heroes who pay costly prices to speak up against injustice and inhumanity of the Taiwanese employment agencies and the Vietnamese government, for these two parties are in collaboration. These people came to Taiwan to earn a living, but ended up having to wait patiently for justice to speak for their pains while they and their loved ones live in poverty. They have turned the violations of humanity and pain into the voice for justice while fully aware of the price they must pay. N., a young Vietnamese woman whose husband and children live in Viet Nam said to me: “I have refused a large amount of money that the employment agency negotiated with me to keep silent about how the father and son of my employment broker have brutally beaten, raped, and locked up me and many other women. No money is enough to worth in exchange for dignity and justice. I thought I would die when I plunged into the car in front of me when I felt so humiliated that I become careless.”

With N., and many other workers staying at the “Center of Compassion” managed by Father Nguyen Van Hung, I admired and grateful to them. I admire them because they might be in poverty but are rich in awareness for justice for themselves and others. I admire and am grateful to them because they are protecting themselves and those who come after them, their fellow Vietnamese.

Presently, there are workers waiting to court hearing for the injustice done onto them. According to the law, these workers can not work, so they are waiting in dispiritedness. In their hearts are the images of their husband or wives being disappointed, loss of hope, depression, their children’s loneliness, and the poverty of their families in Viet Nam. These workers want to work to earn a living with their own hands and labor to support their families. They feel helpless because they carry the responsibility of supporting their families but are unable to work. I dream of somehow to ease their pain. I want to say to the children of these workers: “Boys and girls, your mother always thinks of you and loves you very much. Your mother is trying to earn a living to take care of you and the family. Your mother is thinking of you every hour, every night…”

Dear readers, we all need prayers for each other, especially prayers for our Vietnamese fellows whom are suffering in all roads of life throughout our homeland and the world. Our Vietnamese fellows who are suffering from injustice need our sacrifice and courage to do anything within our capacity to help them. These acts of courage and humanity can be from supporting and helping them to regain dignity in many different ways. Both you and I are called upon by a higher force to help these victims of injustice because it is not accidental that we share this news. If you are interested to help The Vietnamese Migrant Workers Office and Brides in Taiwan directed by Reverend Peter Nguyen Van Hung, S.S.C, please check out the Vietnamese Professional Society (VPS) website: www.vps.org/namcali/gala2005 for the Oct. the 8 th fundraising project or the Vietnamese Alliance to Combat Human Trafficking (VietACT) www.vietact.org or www.taiwanact.net.