14 Korean entrants trapped in bus for 9 hours at Vietnamese public security 'Saint's House'

It has been confirmed that Koreans who recently entered Vietnam were trapped in a vehicle that was stopped for 9 hours by local police while traveling on a bus after completing the facility quarantine.

According to local sources such as Korean groups, the bus carrying 14 Koreans was on its way to Hanoi at around 5 pm on the 2nd, and the movement was stopped until 2 am the next day by the police who checked the scene.

The passengers were on their way to Hanoi after entering the country through the 'Vaccine Track' organized by the Korean Chamber of Commerce on the 19th of last month, completing a two-week quarantine at a hotel in Quang Ninh province.

Vaccine Track is a special entry procedure that shortens the quarantine period for Korean businessmen who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 from 4 weeks to 2 weeks.

This special entry also drew attention as the first vaccine track case that the Korean Chamber of Commerce, led by Chairman Chey Tae-won, succeeded after hard work.

Vietnamese police stopped the bus with Korean entrants at a checkpoint and suddenly demanded that they show their entry permit to Hanoi, blocking the movement.

In response, the passengers requested permission to move, saying that they had completed the two-week quarantine, which is a special entry requirement, and there were no additional documents to present.

However, the Vietnamese police at the scene continued to stop the bus, and only after the police consul of the Korean Embassy in Vietnam arrived at the scene, it was allowed to move around 2 am.

Passengers were in the bus for nearly nine hours as they were blocked by public security and got off only briefly to use the roadside toilets.

They are also said to have skipped dinner.

A local official in Vietnam said, "This happened while the public security was tightening crackdowns as the number of corona infections surged recently."

In this regard, an official from the Korean Embassy in Vietnam said, "After receiving a request for cooperation from the Korean Council at 8 pm on the same day, I contacted the police over the phone and tried to solve it." did," he said.

The official also added, "The arrival time at the site was delayed by about 2 hours because the driver of the special immigration team gave the wrong location." 

(Photo = VN Express site capture, Yonhap News)