Low cost airline VietJet Air has sent an urgent dispatch to the Government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Transport, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam and the Vietnamese Embassy to Singapore, proposing them to assist Vietnamese passengers unpermitted to enter Singapore recently.
According to the airline, their 1,515 passengers were unpermitted to enter the country without clear explanations despite presenting legal passports and other related papers in the first six months this year.
The issue caused the company an extra costs of SGD450,000 (US$319,000) comprising SGD17 for a denied person per hour in custody room and USD32 for supervisory staff an hour.
The expenditure totaled SGD1 million (US$710,000) since VietJet Air opened its flight to Singapore.
In addition, the airline had to pay airfares for these passengers to fly back to Vietnam.
The company thus proposed authorized agencies of Vietnam to work with Singapore to give specific regulations and guidelines on the denial of Vietnamese entries to limit air ticker purchase.
Singaporean immigration agencies should handle unpermitted entries as soon as possible so that passengers can return to Vietnam in the following flights of the airline, reducing waiting time and costs.
Singapore should also lower the custody and supervisory fees, VietJet Air suggested.
Singapore’s Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) has explained that some Vietnamese passengers repeatedly used passports with different personal information to enter the country, resulting in entry denial.
Some violated local laws and failed to explain clearly their entry purposes or entered to seek employment, Vietnam New Agency quoted ICA’s answer to the Vietnamese Embassy in late July.
