The Protector of Citizens, Zoran Pasalic, said today, after visiting the locations where some workers from Vietnam were relocated because due to the danger of fire the police banned them from living in the facilities in Zrenjanin where they were accommodated, that some Vietnamese workers do not want to move out from their original locations and that negotiations with them are in progress.
"One part of the workers was moved to the Kastel castle 'Ecka', and the other to the industrial zone on the other side of the construction site where the Chinese workers are housed. A third part of the workers, 89 of them, voluntarily stayed in the facilities in which they were originally housed, and they claim that they have a certain freedom there. Negotiations with them are in progress to move out as well", said Pasalic.
The Protector of Citizens emphasized that the relocation of Vietnamese workers who remained in the original facilities is a priority.
Pasalic also stated that all Vietnamese workers have a legal stay in Serbia and that this was confirmed during his visit to the Zrenjanin police.
"Also, their passports are with them, and they are at the reception in the Kastel 'Ecka', and I checked that. The workers previously had a reverse for picking up their passports, and as we were told, the main reason is that there is no representation of the Republic of Vietnam in Serbia and that this country is represented by the consulate in Romania, which makes it very difficult to obtain new documents in case of loss or destruction of the passport", said Pasalic.
Representatives of the Protector of Citizens, on Wednesday, 17 November 2021, after learning from the media about the suspicions of the difficult situation and inadequate conditions in which Vietnamese workers live in Zrenjanin, together with representatives of the Police Administration in that city, visited facilities banned for use by the police and found that there are LPG bottles and diesel barrels there, which poses a danger to the lives of these people.
On Wednesday, the delegation of the Protector of Citizens talked in Zrenjanin to the representatives of the Zrenjanin Police Department, as well as with the workers and representatives of the company that hires workers from Vietnam. The Zrenjanin Police Department, among other things, informed the representatives of this institution that it had informed the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Zrenjanin about everything in order to determine whether any criminal acts had been committed.