Illegal Vietnamese workers in hiding in Malaysia Four these men looking for a place on a house roof to sleep on September 16, 2013. Worker Nguyen Van Tuyen in his so-called container home. He is the only Vietnamese to have a work permit. About 6 to 8 Vietnamese workers live in a container home. (Tuoi Tre) About 2,400 illegal immigrants including 126 Vietnamese nationals have so far been arrested in Malaysia’s three-month operation to flush out unwanted foreign workers, said Nguyen Ngoc Quynh, head of the Overseas Labor Management Department. To avoid police arrest, the remaining illegal Vietnamese workers have to live in so-called shipping container homes or sleep on the roofs of under-construction houses they are hired to build or even hide under the shelter in their homes. On Sept. 16, Tuoi Tre saw a group of Vietnamese workers sitting in front of their container home at a construction site in Shah Alam, Selangor. “There are 16 Vietnamese workers here but 15 of them are undocumented” – said Nguyen Van Tuyen, 42, who hails from the northern province of Thai Binh and has been working in Malaysia for six years. Tuyen added that many undocumented workers even have to seek shelters in the forest to avoid being arrested. Initial reports found most of these illegal workers are victims of labor export companies in Vietnam, who promised to offer them a monthly salary of VND8 million in Malaysia but actually they just got VND3 or 4 million. So they had to find other jobs.   “It’s very hard to live that way. Many of us want to return home but the trip costs a lot of money. We would like other people to know our stories so that they should think carefully before deciding to work in Malaysia” – a worker named Van Cong told Tuoi Tre. On Sept 18, we saw many Vietnamese illegal immigrants undergoing some procedures necessary for their trip back home. “I’m very tired of an unstable working life in Malaysia so I accept to pay a fine of MYR1,600 (VND11.2 million) to be allowed to return home” – said worker Chu Viet Chien hailing from the northern province of Phu Tho. Malaysian authorities have launched a three-month special operation starting on Sept. 1 to arrest and deport an estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants, according to The Star newspaper. The campaign will be conducted in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Penang and Johor which have been identified as the dens of illegal immigrants and involves some 135,000 personnel from the Immigration Department, the National Registration Department and local councils as well as soldiers, police and volunteers. The operation aims at illegal workers from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nepal and Vietnam, Datuk Alias Ahmad, Immigration Department Director-General, was quoted by local media as saying. Tuoi Tre