VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has released a statement that it will take drastic measures to stop the people attempting to emigrate illegally through traveling.

Vietnamese tourists in South Korea.

A lot of Vietnamese have fled abroad by taking outbound tours and then escape from the field of view to stay in the destination countries.

Most recently, in early December 2013, a group of 15 Vietnamese “disappeared” in Israel. The tour to Israel was organized by a tourism company in Hanoi.

Everything had run smoothly as scheduled until the lunchtime, when the travelers, one after another, disappeared. The people escaped without passports.

According to the Vietnamese Embassy in Israel, this was the third time Vietnamese escaped in the country.

Israel is not the only destination for Vietnamese who attempt to flee the country. South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Australia and Europe are also the destinations chosen by them.

According to Nguyen Tien Dat from TransViet Travel, those who attempt to flee, always play tricks to cheat the tour organizers (travel firms) and visa agencies.

Dat said his firm was once cheated by “travelers.” A director of a construction company registered a tour to South Korea for tens of workers of the company. Two of the travelers escaped and stayed in South Korea.

Lately, Dat found that the director came forward and helped the workers prove their financial capability and labor contracts. Dat believed that if the escaped workers were caught by the South Korean police, they would be forced to pay the fine of several thousands of dollars and expelled to Vietnam. Meanwhile, if everything went smoothly, he would pocket tens of thousands of dollars.

“Cunning travelers can stay illegally in South Korea without visas. Especially, they can even show a forged red book (the certificate on the land use right) to prove their financial capability.

According to Nguyen Huu Lam, Director of Arirang’s Vietnam Office, several Vietnamese travelers illegally stay in South Korea every year. A Hanoi-based travel firm specializing in organizing tours to South Korea has recently reported about the “disappearance” of 10 tourists in a group of 20.

Hong Kong has also been chosen as the “destination” for many Vietnamese. Dat said the Chinese Embassy has continuously changed its visa policy recently in an effort to prevent Vietnamese travelers from residing illegally in Hong Kong.

A report by the Vietnam Tourism Association showed that 3.5 million Vietnamese traveled abroad in 2012. South Korea alone received 120,000 Vietnamese a year. Meanwhile, a lot of travelers have been trying to flee and stay in the destination countries, thus causing big losses to travel firms and affect the Vietnamese image.

Travel firms, for example, could be fined up to $10,000 for every Vietnamese traveler that fled, and they would have their operation licenses revoked for the high numbers of fled travelers.

The South Korean Embassy, for example, once refused to provide visas to the travelers of Du Lich Viet company for three months, while European in 2012 refused to provide visas for six months.

Travel firms said they need to be very cautious when considering the documents of the travelers booking outbound tours. A single traveler who never went abroad before and now books a tour to South Korea, would be put under suspicion.

The firms need to check the documents of the travelers from Hai Phong, Quang Ninh, Nghe An, Thanh Hoa and Ha Tinh carefully, because they have a lot of fellow-countrymen in foreign countries.

Ngoc Ha