Hundreds of Vietnamese people have been brought home on repatriation flights from various countries on December 31.

Hundreds of Vietnamese citizens are brought home from over 30 countries on December 31.

On December 30 and 31, Vietnam representative agencies in Europe, Africa and South America collaborated with the airlines and related agencies to repatriate nearly 280 Vietnamese people from over 30 countries. They are mostly children under 18 years old, elderly people, people with underlying diseases, students who completed their courses and guest workers whose visa expired.

Vietnamese agencies also co-operated with local authorities to create the most favourable conditions for the repatriation flights. The Vietnam Embassy in France also helped with the procedures at the airports.

On December 31, 350 Vietnamese people in the US were also brought home. They had gathered at Dallas Airport on December 30 to wait for the flight.

“I’m Nguyen Tan Tai. I’ve stayed in the US for a long time and I want to return home to celebrate Tet. We have received great help from everyone,” Tai said.

Deputy Consul General Bui Hoang Phu of Vietnam in Houston, Texas, said Vietnamese and the US authorities have worked together to carry out 23 flights to bring 8,000 Vietnamese people home. This is the last repatriation flight of 2020.

“Over 10,000 people want to return to Vietnam but each flight can only accommodate 350 people. We’ll work hard because we know many people want to celebrate Tet with their families but we have to consider each case,” he said. “The US authorities gave high regards to our work and provided great help to us.

In 2020, over 260 repatriation flights have been organised, bringing 73,000 Vietnamese people from 59 countries home. All passengers and crew members must strictly follow preventive regulations against Covid-19 before, during and after the flights.