After years of working on construction sites in Kuwait and Uzbekistan, a 43-year-old farmer was offered a job in Europe and a chance to escape from poverty in northern Vietnam.
The father of three asked that his name not be used because he wanted to go to the West to change his life.
His life got worse.
One of Europe's poorer nations, Serbia, was chosen as the location for a Chinese tire factory that is currently under construction in the northern city of Zrenjanin.
The $900 million Ling Long Tire factory in Serbia is being criticized because it is seen as a subservience to China. Workers and activists say there are many problems with working conditions and environmental abuse.
Hundreds of Chinese and hundreds of Vietnamese work in Zrenjanin, and they get higher salaries and better living conditions, according to the workers and local labor activists. The former farmer from Vietnam described his work conditions in Serbia as "miserable and dangerous" and said he was housed in a decrepit shack crammed with other Vietnamese workers.
It is a image.
Many workers live in a two-story concrete block near a construction site.
The Ling Long Tire project began in Beijing during meetings between Serbia's populist president and China's leader.
Serbia has been praised by Mr. Xi as a good, honest friend and good partner at a time when other nations are souring on his country.
The tire factory in Zrenjanin would make Serbia the port for Chinese investments throughout the region, according to Mr. Vucic.
Serbia says Chinese investment helped it achieve economic growth of over 7 percent last year.
Serbia has been trying to join the European Union for many years, but the furor over working conditions has put that on hold. The European Parliament demanded an investigation into the treatment of Vietnamese laborers in Zrenjanin and voiced alarm over China's increasing influence in Serbia and the Western Balkans.
It is a image.
The offices of a Chinese company overseeing the construction of a tire factory.
It has made Mr. Vucic's biggest political problem: public anger over damage to the environment, which is blamed on the government's drive to juice the economy at all costs. Tens of thousands of people gathered in Serbia late last year for weeks of street protests against the Rio Tinto project in Serbia. The government canceled licenses for the project after the protests.
The Chinese ventures in Serbia, which include a steel works near Belgrade, the capital, and a copper mine and smelter in the southern town of Bor, have helped stoke this anger. The pro-government Serbian media has made China synonymous with environmental degradation despite gushing praise of Beijing.
Unlike Rio Tinto, which was highly vulnerable because of its links to Australia, Chinese companies have been supported by Mr. Vucic as indispensable for the creation of jobs and economic growth.
Marina Tepic, a leader of the main opposition party, said in an interview that the tire factory would provide a few jobs to Serbs but kill many more with its pollution.
She said that the project was largely off limits for government regulators because of the strong support from the leaders of Serbia and China.
It is a image.
Ling Long Tire was granted 240 acres of farmland free of charge for its factory.
The Chinese factory was Serbia's most closely monitored building site, according to the construction minister, who visited Zrenjanin recently. According to officials, all of the Vietnamese workers have their passports back and are free to leave if they want.
Some of the workers have left. For most of them, leaving would mean breaking their contracts and leaving family members in Vietnam in debt to labor brokers and loan sharks who paid their way to Serbia.
Ling Long Tire is committed to full respect for and a humane and dignified approach to all employees, according to a statement cited in Serbian media. The construction workers are not employees and work for other people. The contractors were asked to provide better accommodations. The tire company's head office in China did not respond to requests for comment.
Ling Long Tire was granted over 200 acres of farmland by the Serbian government and pledged $85 million in state subsidies to build a tire factory. Critics see the move to shield the venture from environmental and other inspectors as a move to declare it a project of national importance.
Ivan Zivkov, a member of a network of activist groups in Zrenjanin that has been pressing the authorities to release information about the factory and its likely impact on the environment, said that they behave as if the Chinese factory were a military site.
It is a image.
There are Chinese workers at the construction site. The Serbian government says it will create 1,200 jobs once it is up and running.
A retiree in Zrenjanin who attended a recent public meeting said he did not object to foreign investment. He expressed alarm that Ling Long, who donated money to send local children to a soccer camp, had not engaged in serious discussion with the residents.
We don't know what's going on over there.
The head of an independent group in Serbia that monitors and lobbies against human traffickers said that she found a construction site with no heat or clean water. She said it was like a prison camp.
Labor contracts signed by workers with China Energy Engineering Group, a Ling Long Subcontractor, commit each worker not to engage in trade union activities and to refrain from anything that would detract from his reputation or the reputation of the Chinese company.
The terms set by recruitment agencies in Vietnam are even more restrictive. All workers going to Europe must sign a document promising never to go on strike or protest.
The document that appears to have been copied and pasted from agreements originally drafted for laborers in Vietnam for work in the Middle East warns that they risk having their hands cut off if they steal.
It is a image.
Activist groups in Zrenjanin have been pressing the authorities to release information about the size of the factory, its technology and its likely impact on the environment. The New York Times has a credit given to Marko Risovic.
The program director for A11, a Belgrade research group, said that contracts signed by Vietnamese workers were far away from Serbian law and left them in indentured servitude. He said that Serbian state authorities did not know what was happening.
A Vietnamese worker who spoke to a Serbian TV station in November about his living conditions was taken in for questioning by the Serbian police and released after signing a statement asserting that he had no complaints. A person who spoke to a Serbian media outlet was fired.
Mr. Curkic said that this was part of the process of intimidation.
The workers who agreed to be interviewed by The Times through an interpreter said they had lived in squalid barracklike shelters for months at a local farm to raise pigs and chickens.
The former farmer from northern Vietnam said that conditions had improved recently. Many workers live in a two-story concrete block surrounded by a metal fence and Serbian security guards watch over them.
The 40-year-old construction worker who requested anonymity said he shared a tiny room with seven other people and that their kitchen was crawling with rats. He said that his salary was higher than what he could earn in Vietnam, but it was late and slashed for days not worked because of sickness or weather.
He worked for different Chinese companies in different countries for 15 years, but said he had never experienced conditions like those at the Ling Long Tire construction site in Serbia.
He said it was like hell on Earth.
It is a image.
The crows were killed near Zrenjanin.
Vo Kieu Bao Uyen reported from Vietnam.
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