Links to the program and a related article in German.

They hope for a better life in Germany.
For their education, they pay a lot of money and leave Vietnam, their home, far behind.
But for some, the dream becomes a nightmare.

The reality? Forged documents, harsh working conditions, and fear of ruin.
Here, people are treated like commodities.

A BR investigation into the business surrounding trainees from Vietnam.

We received information that something was going wrong with some recruitment agencies.
That’s why we began researching months ago to find out how large the scale of the problem really is.
And that’s what we want to report in this film.

And when we thought the investigation was over, things became even crazier.
But it all started with Kieu.

Kieu Dang comes from Vietnam and wants to work in Germany.
Her plane is about to land at Munich Airport.
The first steps in her new home.

Kieu came to Germany through a recruitment agency.
The head of the agency, Dieter Oster, picks her up.

“It’s cold. Get in the car.”

Kieu is 20 years old and 10,000 kilometers away from home.
For the next few years, she will live here without her family.

“Right now, here in Germany, I can see that she is excited, but also tired.
She had a layover in Dubai for more than 10 hours.
They had to wait because flights are not very pleasant at the moment because of the current situation.”

Kieu still has a two-hour drive ahead of her.
Then she finally arrives at her new home.

Her new home is the Krug guesthouse in Dachendorf in Central Franconia.
We visit Sandra Braun three weeks before Kieu’s arrival. She is the owner there.

“Finding trainees is a huge challenge for us.
There are Germans, but very, very few.
In all of Central Franconia, maybe only 10–15% of trainees are German citizens doing training in Germany.
The rest are really foreign trainees.
And that’s our problem.
The work is there and has to be done.
We are dependent on immigration in this sector.”

Our research started at Vocational School 3 in Nuremberg.
It is responsible for gastronomy and hotel training in the region.

Out of the 1,400 students there, about 400 are from Vietnam.
That brings some problems.

“Our impression is mostly that they don’t understand anything at all and can’t speak German at all.”

Strange, because every trainee in Germany is supposed to have at least B1-level German.
That level represents advanced language skills.

At the school, there are doubts.

“Unfortunately, these B1 certificates can easily be printed from the internet.
And it is our impression that there is certainly no B1 level.”

But how can that happen?

We found out that not every agency checks how well candidates actually speak German.
And companies do not always know who they are getting.

One thing is important: not all recruitment agencies are dishonest.
But what stands out is that in recent years, many new agencies have appeared overnight like mushrooms after rain.
And many advertise in Vietnam with promotional videos like these.

This is how the agency system works:

Vietnamese students take a German language course up to B1 level at a language school in Vietnam.
That alone costs several thousand euros.

German agencies are hired by companies to look for trainees.
For this, recruiters cooperate with language schools in Vietnam and recruit graduates there.

The recruitment process is not free.

A full package, including language school fees, costs around €7,000.
The recruitment fee alone costs about €2,000.

According to German law, the companies hiring the agency are supposed to pay that €2,000 fee.
But not everyone does.

Especially agencies headquartered in Vietnam bypass German law and instead make the trainees pay.

For example, Vân Anh paid around €7,500.
In Vietnam, that equals about two years of average income.
Some people reportedly pay up to €20,000.

“My family took out a bank loan so that I could come to Germany for vocational training.
Now I send money back to Vietnam to repay the debts.”

Vân Anh only wants to speak anonymously.

She says she was exploited by her employer.

“She first worked in an Asian restaurant, where she had to work 14 hours a day, six days a week.”

“And she was in a very difficult situation.
Imagine this: she is in a foreign country, barely speaks the language, has a huge mountain of debt she must repay, and she cannot go back.
Because if she returned to Vietnam, she would bring back all those debts and would lose face by returning as a failure.
And that is especially difficult in many Asian cultures.”

Vân Anh eventually quit and changed jobs.
But the second job was not any better.

“It was a large Vietnamese restaurant with a lot of revenue.
I thought I would be treated better there.
Instead, I experienced the same thing again.
I was exhausted and already losing my hair from the stress.”

Now she has moved somewhere else.
She was helped by Phan Bao Nhien.

He himself came to Germany as a trainee two years ago and experienced similar things.
Since then, he has tried to help other Vietnamese trainees.

He explains why exploitation works.

“In my opinion, the biggest problem is the cultural difference.
We do not address problems as directly as Germans do.
And our understanding of rights is completely different.”

We obtained numerous documents revealing additional questionable conditions.

In one case, four trainees lived together in a tiny apartment where the ceiling panels had collapsed.

And in some contracts, trainees were required to deposit €3,000 as a security payment.
If they quit or changed jobs, they would not get the money back.

Back to Kieu.

Just before midnight, she finally arrives at her new home and meets her employer for the first time.

“Hello, Kieu.”
“Hello.”
“Did you arrive safely?”
“Yes.”

Kieu has been traveling for more than a full day.
Before going to bed, she is given dinner: schnitzel and Franconian sausages with potato salad — for the first time in her life.

“A new culture in Germany. Getting to know each other.
The language is a big challenge for me.”

In the next building, Sandra had a room converted into an apartment for Kieu.

We return four weeks later to see how she is doing.

At this point in the film, we thought our research was over.
But then we received a shocking tip.

“Take a look at this contract. It looks normal, but something is wrong.”

According to these documents, five Vietnamese trainees were supposed to start work there.

The problem? The employer knew nothing about it.

The contracts had been forged.

“If you look closely, the hotel name is slightly wrong.
There is also a stamp here that looks completely different from our actual stamp.
And the signature is entirely wrong too.
But of course, the young person in Vietnam could not know that.”

We speak to one of the victims in Vietnam.

She says she was recruited through a distant acquaintance connected to a language school.

For the registration fee, language course, and recruitment by a Vietnamese agency, she paid a total of €6,500.
Her family even borrowed money for it.

And now she has no valid contract.

“I am angry because they gave me a forged contract.
I don’t know what to do anymore.
I still want to go to Germany, but I am so discouraged.”

The question is: who is responsible?

“There is no single person responsible.
Ultimately, all actors involved bear part of the responsibility.”

“We also must not forget that we need skilled workers from abroad.
Trainees from Vietnam are important to keep our industries and businesses running.”

“And not every case turns out badly.
Many Vietnamese who come through agencies are happy.”

For the Food, Beverage and Hospitality Union, however, such extreme cases are unacceptable.

The union wants clearer rules and stronger oversight.

“But the way things currently happen and are exploited — both by recruitment agencies and partly by employers — cannot really be called regulated anymore.
In some cases, it even moves toward human trafficking.”

The union believes that the Chamber of Commerce, customs authorities, the Federal Employment Agency, vocational schools, and employers all need to pay closer attention and enforce the rules more strictly.

The German Federal Ministry of Labor told us upon request that it is difficult to solve the problem, especially because many problematic agencies are based in Vietnam.

For this film, we contacted 30 agencies.
Most did not respond.

A few did — mainly those based in Germany.
And they themselves criticize the illegal structures.

“It is a shame that these illegal structures are associated with us.
We work honestly and transparently with companies.
But companies — perhaps to save costs or because they do not know better — use these illegal structures instead.”

“And if someone is properly paid in Germany, that costs money.
You cannot do it for free.
So if an agency offers recruitment services to companies for free, then something cannot be right.”

The agencies we contacted are calling for state certification, among other reforms.

Four weeks later, we visit Sandra and Kieu again at the Krug guesthouse.

We want to know how Kieu is doing in her new home.

“The food and maybe the weather are different from Vietnam.
But now I am slowly getting used to it.
I miss home every day.”

Kieu’s employer is happy that she is there.

“Kieu is friendly and hardworking.
The cooperation is going well.”

But Sandra Braun also realizes how much responsibility she carries for foreign trainees.

“Because bringing someone into the country is a big task.
You have to show them everything.
You have to help with all the authorities — from registering at city hall, to opening a bank account, to getting a tax ID number.
It’s almost like having a child.”

She still does not know whether she would recruit another Vietnamese trainee through an agency.

“For now, I want to focus on taking care of Kieu and supporting her training.”