Vietnamese apprentices in Germany confront low wages, high broker fees and unlawful dismissals

Hong Hanh, a 23-year-old from Ho Chi Minh City, spent nine months in Berlin as a vocational trainee after paying €7,000 in broker fees and earning a net salary of €787, far below the advertised gross wage of €1,068. When illness forced her to request sick leave, her employer pressured her to resign voluntarily, which would have forfeited unemployment benefits; after she refused, she received an immediate dismissal notice.

With the restaurant owner absent, a lawyer defended the termination, and Hanh’s trade union is now supporting her case before the Labor Court later this year. Research indicates that more than half of Vietnamese trainees arrive via private brokers, incurring fees from €6,000 up to €40,000, while many live in shared rooms without proper contracts and take undocumented work to survive. A separate scandal in early 2026 revealed 27 Vietnamese nursing trainees forced to work unpaid for months in container housing after their provider concealed a lost training license.

NGOs such as VDP Personal Bildung Integration have expanded their hotline to handle daily emergencies, assisting victims like Phuong Nga in finding new contracts and housing. Experts warn that debt, limited German language skills and lack of legal knowledge trap trainees in a cycle of exploitation, calling for tighter regulation of intermediaries and clearer fee disclosures.