Citizen protection measures taken to protect Vietnamese abroad hinh anh 1

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang

 

 

Answering reporters' questions regarding information on the trafficking of a woman from the central province of Quang Tri to Myanmar, Hang said that on January 13, the ministry’s Consular Department received requests for support from Quang Tri to bring home a local woman from Bang Khang township in Myanmar’s Shan State.

Shortly after, the ministry directed the Vietnamese Embassy in Myanmar to contact local authorities to verify the information and seek measures to directly speak with the citizen, thus determining her health, safety and hopes, and working with domestic agencies to implement the necessary citizen protection measures.

“We will continue to receive information from the embassy regarding the case,” Hang said.

Regarding information about two Vietnamese citizens detained by Iran while aboard the tanker MT Hankuk Chemi from the Republic of Korea (RoK), which was travelling from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Hang said the sailors are in good health.
 

Vietnamese diplomatic representatives in the RoK and Iran have worked with the host country’s authorised agencies to ask them to protect the safety, health, and living conditions of the sailors, she said.

The Consular Department held direct meetings with the Iranian Embassy in Hanoi to discuss the case, Hang added.

“According to the latest updates from the Vietnamese Embassy in Iran, it managed to contact the two Vietnamese sailors,” she said. “Their current physical and mental health conditions are stable. As scheduled, on January 18, the Iranian side will arrange a consular visit to the sailors for the embassy's officials.” 

She added that the Foreign Ministry and Vietnamese representative agencies in the RoK and Iran will continue keeping a close watch on the case and roll out any necessary citizen protection measures to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of the sailors. 

Clarifying the case in which a Vietnamese woman was sentenced to three years in prison for the murder charge by a court in the RoK, Hang said the Vietnamese Embassy in the RoK reported that on January 2, a Vietnamese woman born in 1995 and from Kien Giang province jumped from the eighth storey of a building with her daughter in her arms. The child died while the woman was seriously injured and hospitalised. On January 7, a court sentenced her to three years’ imprisonment for murder. 

The embassy has been keeping a close watch on the case while asking authorised agencies in the host country, in the spirit of humanitarianism, to continue providing treatment for the woman and give her fair and proper judgment, Hang said.

She added that the embassy visited the woman and applied the necessary citizen protection measures. The Foreign Ministry has asked the embassy to continue following the case and work to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the Vietnamese citizen.

 

Vietnamese citizens advised to travel home only when really necessary: spokesperson

The Foreign Ministry is coordinating with ministries, sectors, localities and relevant agencies to study and build plans to repatriate Vietnamese citizens who really need to return to the country, according to the ministry’s spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang.

Speaking at the ministry’s regular press conference on January 14, Hang said many Vietnamese citizens abroad have registered to return to Vietnam from now to the Lunar New Year.

The spokeswoman noted that however, due to the appearance of new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus which spread very fast in some countries, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on January 5 issued a document instructing limiting flights bringing Vietnamese citizens abroad back to Vietnam. When really necessary, each flight must be considered and agreed by the ministries of Health, Foreign Affair, National Defence, Public Security and Transport, and then reported to the PM for decision.

The repatriation of Vietnamese citizens from abroad must meet the principles in epidemic prevention and control as well as suit the quarantine capacity in the country, Hang said.

She informed that relevant Vietnamese agencies have so far organized 299 flights bringing more than 80,000 Vietnamese citizens from 60 countries and territories back to Vietnam safely. The work has been conducted based on the pandemic situation in the world and in the country, and the domestic quarantine capacity./.VNA