Lives in the shadows

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nyone needing repair or maintenance work on their vehicle in Mongolia’s capital knows where best to go: any car repair shop that has a “Vietnamese service” sign. 

For more than a decade now, Vietnamese mechanics have dominated the Mongolian car scene because of their stellar and reliable service. Even their bosses – most of them Mongolians – praise them as hardworking, responsible, and “persistent.” 

It’s no surprise then that some Vietnamese mechanics in Ulaanbaatar earn more than the average monthly salary in the capital: MNT2.5 million or about US$730. That’s even if most of them usually go unpaid for overtime work – which happens regularly. Vietnamese mechanics in Mongolia also often live in their garage-workplaces, have no days off, and have no health insurance. 

Save for their comparatively good wages, all these are in violation of Mongolia’s labor laws. Yet government authorities did not seem to be aware of what apparently had been going on for years until this reporting team approached them for this story. 

Official inspections of auto repair shops have been rare in the last few years. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, only one inspection has been conducted among the repair shops that have Vietnamese employees. According to Enkhjargal Sangidkhorloo, acting deputy head of the Department of Labor Mobility at the Ministry of Labor and Welfare Services, inspections have been inconsistent due to logistical challenges and coordination gaps between agencies.

Sunjid Dugar, Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, remarked, “The right to work, health, safety, and life is being violated for these workers. State inspectors need to take action, and workers should be informed of their rights.”

Mongolia has been said to be suffering an employment paradox, which has it having a labor shortage and high youth unemployment simultaneously. This has been attributed to a probable skills mismatch and another mismatch between expectations of old-school employers and young workers. The country is thus opening its doors a little wider to foreign workers especially for some sectors, including construction, manufacturing, and processing. 

Mongolia’s ratification of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Conventions No. 29 and No. 105, which address forced labor, shows a commitment to international labor standards. But the lack of enforcement of its own labor laws undermines these commitments. In truth, Mongolia has long overlooked the plight of foreign migrant workers. 

As of the third quarter of 2024, Mongolia had 17,800 foreigners under labor contracts. Majority of these foreign workers were from China (69.3 percent), followed by those from India (9.1 percent). Workers from Vietnam came third (4.3 percent).

When the reporting team talked to Enkhjargal in September, she said that their records showed 745 Vietnamese citizens working in Mongolia, among whom 697 or 93% were employed by auto repair shops spread across urban and rural areas and which are owned by 79 different companies.

She also said that employers “have a contractual obligation to ensure the safety of their workers” and “should also be responsible for their healthcare.”

Only a few of the Vietnamese mechanics encountered by the team, however, said that they had health insurance. Most rely on self-medication or advice from co-workers whenever they feel ill. Their living and working conditions, meanwhile, can only pose challenges to their health. 

Working hard, keeping head down

Typically, the Vietnamese mechanics endure up to 15-hour shifts that often extend late into the wee hours of the morning. They do not enjoy the legally mandated overtime pay or designated rest days. This practice blatantly violates Mongolia’s labor laws, which limit work to 40 hours per week, with no more than four hours of daily overtime, with pay.

The living quarters of these workers are equally dire. Many live within the very garages they work in, surrounded by dust, oil, and the pungent smell of chemicals. Basic hygiene and safety are compromised, as these makeshift living spaces lack proper ventilation, clean bedding, and adequate sanitation. Meals, often instant noodles, are prepared in unsanitary conditions amidst the tools and machinery of their workspace.

“The smell of this dirt and paint can certainly have a negative impact on the employee,” commented Enkhnaran Naranbat, academic fellow at the Environmental Health and Impact Assessment Office, National Center for Public Health. “Anyone who lives and works in such an environment is at least at risk of getting sick.”

He echoed others in urging state inspectors to take a closer look at the working and living conditions of Vietnamese mechanics, while adding, “Employees have the right to claim their rights.”

The Vietnamese workers, though, have not reached out to Mongolian authorities or even to their own embassy to call attention to their sorry circumstances.

In fact, it doesn’t seem to have occurred to them to complain. One reason may be their inability to express themselves in a language other than Vietnamese. Indeed, even those who have been in Mongolia for years usually know just a few phrases in the local language such as, “the boss knows,” “this,” and “it will cost this much.” Calculators also come in handy when it comes to talks about the costs of parts and repair. 

The mechanics the team were able to talk to through interpreters said that they put up with their dismal working conditions because they are making good money – sums that they cannot earn for the same work in Vietnam. One of them, Chan Bang Zang, said, “Wages are very low in our country. The average salary is about 10 million dong (around US$400). Our earnings are high in Mongolia compared with Vietnam.” 

Much of what they earn goes back to their families in Vietnam. Many of the mechanics have at least three children each back home.

Nguyen Kim said that he sends nearly his entire salary back to Vietnam because his wife is ill while their three children need to be clothed, fed, and sent to school. He wants to see them in the flesh, but he has no money for plane fare. Instead, he pays his mobile phone service provider a little more each month so that he can make video calls.

‘Confiscated’ passports and missing contracts

The determination of most Vietnamese mechanics to save  for their families most of what they earn may be one reason why they have opted to just make corners of their workplaces also their home. After all, they can well rent space elsewhere.

The wife of a Vietnamese shop owner remarked when queried whether it was wise for the mechanics to prepare their food under such unsanitary conditions: “People have their own right to decide what to eat or drink in such an environment.”

The mechanics may have also given up finding better living quarters away from the car shops because of the long hours and the pressure of finishing work on as many vehicles as possible. Many times, most of them are simply too tired to venture out. The language barrier is yet another factor. 

But one crucial reason why many Vietnamese mechanics do not want to go too far from their place of work is that they usually do not have their passports with them. Their employers often take their travel documents, including their passports, telling them their visas need to be extended.

But the bosses never really give the passports back, despite immigration authorities confirming with the reporting team that on average, visa renewal takes just five working days. When the team tried to interview the mechanics’ employers about this practice, they refused to discuss the matter.

An official who had done inspections of car repair shops for years before the pandemic pointed out that by law, foreigners should always have their passport with them or at least a Mongolian residence permit.

The official also said, “By confiscating their documents, employers are restricting the workers’ right to travel. This practice is not only a violation of human rights, but also constitutes human trafficking and forced labor.”

Most of the Vietnamese have valid work visas. But while they all said they had work contracts, none of those the team talked to could produce one. The team has since found out that many of the mechanics came to Mongolia not through employment agencies, but through recommendations by Vietnamese companies bringing in second-hand Japanese cars into the country.

These companies have connections with Mongolian car repair shops since the vehicles they are importing most probably need some work.

For sure, having none of their papers in their possession also makes the Vietnamese mechanics insecure and unable to interact as freely as they would want with people outside of their workplaces. While many of them have pictures of their documents on their phones, not having the papers themselves puts them at risk of harassment; they can also be fined. 

Beaten and harassed

Yet even without this complication, Vietnamese mechanics are already seen as easy targets for harassment and physical attacks by street criminals and ultranationalist groups – another factor contributing to their reluctance to go too far from the garages where they work.  

The mechanics themselves say that it has now become more common for many of them to get injured and suffer cuts, broken noses, and facial bruises.

While a few of the injuries are from attacks by irate customers, most are from petty criminals and ultranationalist gangs. Said one shop owner: “There are workers who have had enough and went back (to Vietnam). There are so many cases where they get beaten, harassed, and even their food get stolen. There are homeless vagrants who would come in and steal their food and tools.” 

“A year ago, I had a repairman who got beaten,” the shop owner recounted. “The police confirmed the injuries the worker sustained – an eyebrow cut and trauma to the head. And I presented all the evidence to the court, but the case has yet to have a verdict.” 

The good news is that because of the reporting team’s work, the Ministry of Labor and Welfare Services will conduct early next year a thorough investigation of how foreign workers are being treated. But the team has yet to hear from the Vietnamese Embassy, which it had contacted for comments and reactions to the issues raised in this story. 

In the meantime, Vietnam media have been reporting that the country has already overshot its 2024 target number of its citizens working overseas. Citing state data, the Vietnam Times said that in just the first 10 months of this year, 130,640 more Vietnamese had gained employment abroad, mainly in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. 

In total, it said, more than 640,000 are employed in over 40 countries and territories, and send as much as US$ 4 billion in remittances annually. The newspaper also cited a recent Department of Overseas Labor Management report in saying that Vietnamese workers overseas “receive good working and living conditions with guaranteed welfare regime.” ◉