For Vietnamese Scrap Metal Hunters, Tiny Income Courts UXO Danger

The commune in Thua Thien-Hue Province’s A Luoi District used to be a fierce battlefield in the Vietnam War. Now it is still laden with deadly bombs, mortars, artillery shells and other munitions, Zing.vn reports. Hong Van residents are mostly Paco ethnic people who engage in searching for scrap metal for a living. Although many of them know all too well that they are putting their own lives at risk, they stick to the job. Children here drop out at the age of 10. They go to local forests together, usually bringing with them a metal detector. When the detector finds something, they will try to dig it up with a hoe. Sometimes, that something can turn out to be a piece of unexploded ordnance (UXO). But even finding a bomb is not a bad thing for local scrap metal hunters. A bomb means a little more cash for the day, if they can get through it. (VOV.vn Mar 29)