Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam always gives priority to promoting gender equality,narrowing the gender gap and creating equal opportunities for women and men toparticipate in and benefit from all aspects of social life, contributing to thesustainable development of the country,  Spokeswomanof the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) Le Thi Thu Hang has said.

Hangmade the statement on November 18 at the MOFA’s regular press briefing, inresponse to a reporter’s question over a recent report conducted by a group ofUN experts which stated that a number of Vietnamese women and girls sufferedfrom violence and harassment from their employers, after being recruited toSaudi Arabia for work.

Shesaid the MOFA has instructed Vietnamese representative missions abroad to keepin close contact with local authorities and companies in charge of managing andemploying Vietnamese labour. They also encourage the local Vietnamese communityto help facilitate favourable conditions for Vietnamese citizens working andresiding in other countries.

Vietnam’srepresentative agencies always stand ready to implement citizen protectionmeasures and other measures to ensure the lawful rights and interests ofVietnamese citizens, particularly female labourers and girls in necessarycases, she said.

Accordingto the spokeswoman, over the past years, the MOFA and the Vietnamese Embassy inSaudi Arabia have received certain comments on the situation of Vietnameselabourers in this country.

Immediatelyupon receiving such information and the instruction of the MOFA, the VietnameseEmbassy in Saudi Arabia has got in touch with local authorities, checked theinformation and requested investigations and strict punishments for incidentsin line with the law, Hang said.

TheVietnamese Embassy and labour management board in Saudi Arabia have also beenworking with companies in charge of deploying workers to seek suitablesolutions to address conflicts with employees and protect the safety and rightsof Vietnamese citizens abroad, she said.

Hang further asserted that Vietnam had enacted measures to protect female workers,prevent violence and harassment at work and stop the use of child labourthrough the issuance and adoption of relevant laws and policies such as the2012 Labour Code and the 2016 Law on Children.

Vietnamhas become party to 25 conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO),including seven out of eight fundamental conventions that encompass preventionof discrimination, child labour and forced labour. Vietnam is the first countryin Asia and the second in the world to ratify the UN Convention on the Rightsof the Child, she said.

Amidcomplicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, the MOFA and the VietnameseEmbassy in Saudi Arabia have been making every effort to overcome challenges andcooperate with local authorities and airlines to run repatriation flights.Nearly 800 Vietnamese citizens have so far been returned home. 

Vietnameseauthorities will continue to work closely with foreign counterparts to organisemore repatriation flights, in line with citizens’ aspirations and take intoaccount the evolution of the pandemic globally, as well as domestic quarantinecapacity, she said./.