Australia Welcomes Vietnamese Workers Under Farm Visa Scheme

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Vietnamese migrant workers on Australian farm.
Vietnamese migrant workers on Australian farm.

The Australian Agriculture Visa Program will be offering visas to around 1,000 Vietnamese agricultural workers under a new agreement between Vietnam and Australia.

The program is to help with Australia’s current labor shortage in farming.

Workers between 18 and 35 from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand are already eligible, while Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines hold the priority position that Vietnam has now been given. 

The workers could be offered salaries of AUD 3,200-4,000 (about USD 2,400 – 3,000) each month, excluding living expenses. That income is said to be more than is offered to imported laborers in other markets.

Apple pickers on Australian farm
Apple pickers on an Australian farm (Photo: SMH).

In addition to guaranteed safe working conditions and high incomes, workers will have the chance to earn knowledge in scientific and technological advances in agriculture. 

The visa program is a key component of the Australia-Vietnam Enhanced Economic Engagement Strategy, an initiative started in November by both nations’ prime ministers. 

As the Laotian Times reported in December, the agricultural labor shortage in Australia has been exacerbated by the end of a program under which British backpackers were offered employment on farms.