Mekong Delta tightens control over immigrants through border gates

Amid new coronavirus wave in the country with rising new community transmission infection cases, Viet kieu - overseas Vietnamese people - were returning to Vietnam to reunite with their relatives in Tet holiday ( the Lunar New Year) through border gates in the Mekong Delta region. Therefore, Mekong Delta authorities tightened control over illegal immigrants for the sake of all people in the country’s special holiday.
Border guards tightencontrol over immigrants through border gates (Photo: SGGP)
Border guards tightencontrol over immigrants through border gates (Photo: SGGP)
In these days, many Vietnamese people , mostly overseas Vietnamese people in Cambodia came back Vietnam through border gate in Ha Tien Town in Kien Giang Province. Border guards have used loudspeakers  to explain the immigration regulations and the quarantine regulations so that all of immigrants can follow.
Staffs of outdoor quarantine stations check oversea people’s body temperature asking them to complete a TOCC (travel, occupation, contact and cluster) history sheet.
The Steering Board for Covid-19 Prevention in Kien Giang Province said that from early January, 2021, throng of Vietnamese oversea people returned to their homeland resulting in overload of quarantine centers. For instance, the isolation ward in Giang Thanh District has been keeping 159 people, meanwhile the facility in Kien Luong District has been isolating over 100 people. Approximately 1,570 have been residing in six facilities in Ha Tien City. Presently, more quarantine wards are being established such as My Duc Cultural House to receive 500 people.
So far, Kien Giang has isolated 3,762 people.
Party Chief of Ha Tien City Le Quoc Anh said that more and more oversea Vietnamese people returned to the country in the country’s special holiday; many of them illegally entered the country. The spread of community transmission cases will increase if state competent agencies have not strictly monitored the situation.
Realizing that,  Ha Tien City authority has focused on precautionary measures as well as building Covid-19 hypothetical scenario to ensure safety for all residents.
Tens of oversea people enter the country in border gates Dinh Ba and Thuong Phuoc in Dong Thap Province, in the Mekong Delta’s heart, daily. All of them have been taken to quarantine wards.
According to Pham Tan Hoa, Deputy Chairman of the People’s Committee in Long An Province, as of January 25, a total of 686 oversea people and 13 foreigners have been rushed to isolation centers after they entered the country through border gates and illegally immigrated into Vietnam through trails.
Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee in An Giang Province Le Van Phuoc said that before January 25, around 30, 40 oversea Vietnamese people returned to Vietnam to gather with their relatives in Tet holiday daily. All were kept in quarantine wards.
Captain Dang Thanh Phuc from the border gate Dinh Ba in Dong Thap Province said that border guards have enhanced patrol in the border gates. Seven outside monitoring stations, five mobile teams and one medical facility have been established to work around the clock. However, he admitted that the join -hand of people is a significant factor in control of the coronavirus pandemic because the borderline is very long and competent force find it difficult to monitor the illicit immigration.
Specifically, An Giang Province has nearly 100-km border line and rivers, canals trails that illicit immigrants can travel to get into Vietnam. The People’s Committee in An Giang Province has set up more outside control stations with more than 200 border guards, said Deputy Chairman Le Van Phuoc.
Lieutenant colonel Luu Dac Nhanh, head of the border gate Ha Tien in Kien Giang Province sad that from January, about 2,000 oversea Vietnamese people entered Vietnam through the gate. Nevertheless, the number of immigrants dropped sharply; local administrations fretted that people have sneakily penetrated the country because they don’t want to welcome Tet holiday in quarantine wards.

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