Vietnam announced a temporary suspension of entry for all foreigners and Vietnamese nationals who were granted a visa exemption in the context of the number of corona virus infections in Vietnam increasing to hit 106 as of 9 pm of March 22.
The notice issued from Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s office on Saturday said this provision will take effect from 0:00 on March 22. The notice also outlines some allowed entry cases such as diplomatic or official duties and “special cases (foreign guests attending, serving important foreign affairs; experts, business managers, and high-tech workers).”
Overseas Vietnamese such as pupils, students, workers, overseas Vietnamese are advised not to return to the country at the present time and comply with measures to prevent and control epidemics in the host country, according to the notice.
“Where there is a real need to return to the country, they must register with the representative mission to promptly coordinate with the Ministry of Transport in directing the aviation industry to organize each commercial flight and must register and comply with the arranging for each trip, batch, strictly implementing medical declaration, isolation according to regulations.”
The notice added: “Vietnamese people holding diplomatic passports and on official missions when returning home must comply with quarantine, medical declaration at the border according to current pandemic prevention process and comply with quarantine requirements. You must comply with the regulations.”
The new rule applies to entry by sea, waterway, road and air, according to the notice.
As of March 22, Vietnam recorded 106 new infections of the Wuhan strain, also known as Covid-19, according to data posted on the Government. No disease-related deaths have been reported and 17 have been cured.
On March 17, the fanpage of singer Khac Viet with more than 3.6 million followers posted a controversial status about “Vietnamese overseas,” with the expression that “In my hometown I was a farmer, I went abroad and work in nail shops and became Vietnamese overseas.”
Specifically, the singer born in 1987 posted an image of a Vietnamese living abroad returning to the country with the controversial statement about the Covid-19 pandemic and shared the following:
“In my hometown I was a farmer, I went abroad and work in nail shops and became Vietnamese overseas. After going to the West for a few years, I dont want Vietnam’s food infested with toxic chemicals. Vietnam’s environment is polluted and I could not breathe, people are not civilized while the health system cannot be compared with foreign countries.
When Covid-19 broke out, I didn’t know which number to call for medical examination, if I had any, I would not dare to report it because it was too expensive.
In my country, there was no money to cure. After coughing, someone will come to hold me to take care of me always, there is no need to be afraid of food shortage.
So I came back to the country, in case something happened, I pulled it back safely
The Fatherland always welcomes, kind things, kind deeds, kind people, always present, in the country, Tiny but Very Extraordinary And still full of humanity … Don’t do it humiliating it too … ”- Khac Viet wrote so.
The implication of Khac Viet is to decry the Vietnamese overseas and claim that foreign countries cannot be compared to Vietnam for the anti-pandemic policy of the Wuhan Flu, so overseas Vietnamese have to run back to Vietnam to deal with the Covid-19 outbreak.
On March 19, the singer had one more explanation of the previous article and said that he had no problem with the nail industry, “the main problem is the sensitivity of bad people and explanation of readers.”
“And even if you do something noble, you have no right to harass and defame the people of the country, you feel hurt, so the people in Vietnam, when you hear If you come home from overseas to swear at us, we don’t feel hurt? Do you know you came back to the country, through the airport tests, or isolated, and when the pandemic is over, you will return to the west, all of those expenses are from our taxes. Do you know the quarantine money, the food and drink you are using, the same money that the people in our country pay? … ”- Khac Viet explained so.
However, there are many opposite views with this singer.
Journalist Christine Nguyen in France commented: “The topic ‘overseas Vietnamesetopic go home to avoid Coronavirus’ was organized methodically by the Vietnamese party and state through the propaganda section, and later was adopted by some Vietnamese people to make it loud public opinion.”
Businessman Le Hoai Anh commented quite similarly that: “Propaganda has been a great success when most Vietnamese now think that flu is caused by overseas Vietnamese who bring it everywhere to Vietnam!”
Facebooker Hoàng Mạnh Hải thinks that there is a miserable misunderstanding and ignorance, and terms like “hiding in the homeland”, “Overseas Vietnamese repatriating for Covid-19,” “burden for homeland” and “arrogant” are really incorrect.
Facebook Hoang Manh Hai wrote the following:
“Words like “returning home and hiding,” ‘Overseas Vietnamese returning due to Covid-19,’ “bringing trouble for the homeland,” and ‘pride’ are really inaccurate. Vietnam, like anywhere in the world, is not a safe place from this pandemic. Such a mistake is dangerous. People with knowledge, from the government to the people, from the intellectuals to the common people, know that we are not safer than Europe, America, China, or South Korea. Once it is called a global pandemic, all must go through a peak to end it. What we see is just a matter of time, before or after, dying a lot or dying a little. All look forward to the news that the vaccine has been successfully produced. Without a vaccine in this pandemic, a few billion people worldwide will be infected and tens of millions of people will die. Please don’t be foolish anymore.
Overseas Vietnamese, in the sense that those who have lived for a long time abroad, have foreign passports, from Eastern Europe to Western Europe to the US, they will not go back to Vietnam to avoiding the pandemic. They know the vaccine will be produced soonest in the US and then Europe, not Asia, not Vietnam. Most Vietnamese who come from abroad are students or workers but they are not overseas Vietnamese,” Hoang Manh Hai affirmed.
It is necessary to affirm a very clear and specific fact that most Vietnamese expatriates are true, from Eastern Europe to Western Europe to the US, ordinary people no one should think about Vietnam to avoid the pandemic.
Burden, I don’t understand how the government will be bothered to hear you say that. In managing the country, cash flow is a leading factor and tens of billions of dollars a year due to overseas Vietnamese returning home is an important motivation. Overseas Vietnamese reduce the burden on their homeland, not the burden.
Pride this is a word that, if used to compliment, those with little status no one wants to receive. The countries that sent airplanes to Wuhan to take their people back home have hundreds of flights. Our flight was engulfed in that number, we shouldn’t call it a pride flight.
As doctors and nurses fighting against the epidemic, I was very touched and grateful. Many of them are my fellow friends.
I just want you to know how to praise those humble people. They studied not only to be a medical professional, but also to learn that their buckling was naturally, like a soldier in a war, like a teacher in an ignorant period, like a sailor on the ocean at all, like a miner in a deep tunnel … Everyone has the opportunity to show their love for their compatriots and fellow citizens who have to forget their own lives. If they love them, they must understand and love them properly, but they will show hatred towards people from abroad returning to their hometown right now for fear of increasing the burden on them.
Facebook Thanh Tran also agrees and thinks that people who return to their homeland are all “genuine Vietnamese” but they are called “Viet Kieu” by the Vietnamese press, which is why confusion.
Facebook Thanh Tran writes:
“Overseas Vietnamese they won’t come back this time. Calling Viet Kieu means that they have a foreign nationality (or green card), have settled abroad, they enjoy the rights as a normal citizen of that party (completely free of charge for 100% of treatment costs Chinese Flu).
When all countries see a pandemic, immediately 100% free. Some countries also give money to the people, and the US takes another step beyond money to distribute free food to everyone. This means not only feeding isolated people but also home-grown people. In short, there’s no reason for them to go back to Vietnam this time.
Those returning home are:
- International students (sons of red capitalists)
- Vietnamese laborers in foreign countries
- Sex workers, illegal exported laborers
All Vietnamese people are genuine, so why are newspapers simultaneously called them “overseas Vietnamese“?
The problem is that in the past there were only 16 “suspected” cases plus a few thousand isolated people, most of which were related to Chinese factors. The Vietnamese government wants to collect money but not from China’s government. It is very delicate. So taking the opportunity to propagate is always 100% free for stately.
Hoang Lan from Hanoi – Thoibao.de (Translated)
