Vietnamese Delegation Visit to Singapore

Think Centre forges ASEAN solidarity
Beyond the veneer of state-to-state diplomatic relations, Singapore saw its foremost socio-political NGO Think Centre host a landmark exchange visit from its ASEAN counterparts. From 15-18 February 2006, Vietnam Women's Union and AFESIP Vietnam - both socio-welfare human rights NGO - visited Singapore and met up with both officials and NGOs in the island republic.

Kicking off their maiden exchange visit, the delegation held closed door sessions with officials from the Vietnam Embassy here, Ministry of Manpower [Foreign Manpower Management Division] and NTUC [International Affairs Department].
Discussions centred mainly around labour rights of foreign workers in Singapore, state policies and regulations on repatriation of foreign workers, and the current plights of Vietnamese here on social visit passes.

The Vietnamese delegation were keen to learn of measures to deal with the issue of cross-border trafficking of women and children. AFESIP Vietnam is focused on repatriation of trafficked victims and rehabilitation.

The open dialogue with local NGOs - Think Centre, AWARE, TWC2, HOME, National Committee of UNIFEM Singapore - proved to be more engaging and constructive.
In 2005, about 400,000 Vietnamese visited Singapore. Some of them may have worked as illegal pub hostess expecting to earn about S$1000 before their one month visa expired.

Speaking through AFESIP Vietnam coordinators, the Vietnamese Women's Union updated its counterparts on the worsening state of women and child trafficking in ASEAN and called for more collaboration with local NGOs to assist the repatriation of these victims.

The trafficking of women and children for sex work in Vietnam and in the the Mekong Delta is increasing and becoming more sophisticated. The Vietnamese Women's Union collaborates with Agir pour les Femmes En Situation Precaire (AFESIP) to establish a centre to support women and children who are victims of sexual abuse. The centre in Can Tho provides counselling, healthcare and occupational skills training to women and children as well as help them reintegrate into the community.

Our local NGOs took turns to present their on-going humanitarian work involving rehabilitation, public education and community outreach programmes involving foreign domestic workers (FDWs) in Singapore. Everyone concurred on the lack of government-to-government collaboration to reduce the trafficking problem and instead called for greater NGO-to-NGO coordination in educating inbound FDWs, legal and emotional support to and swift repatriation of victimised FDWs. As rightly summed up the hosts Think Centre, it was imperative to promote people-to-people understanding, interaction and support beyond the ASEAN bugbear framework of non-interference in country matters.