Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Le Thi Thu Hang on March 17 reaffirmed that ensuring security and safety for the lives and assets of Vietnamese citizens in Ukraine is the top priority of the Party, State, and Government of Vietnam.
Some Vietnamese people repatriated from Ukraine. (Photo: VNA)– Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Le Thi Thu Hang on March 17 reaffirmed that
ensuring security and safety for the lives and assets of Vietnamese citizens in
Ukraine is the top priority of the Party, State, and Government of Vietnam.
At the ministry’s regular press
meeting held virtually, she noted when the Ukraine situation recorded tense
developments, the Prime Minister issued Official Dispatch No. 201/CD-TTg, dated
February 26, 2022, on the protection of Vietnamese citizens and legal entities,
and some issues needing attention in the face of the Ukraine situation.
Recently, Foreign Minister Bui Thanh
Son has continually held phone talks with his counterparts of Russia, Ukraine,
and Romania, sent a letter to the Foreign Minister of Poland, and received the
relevant countries’ ambassadors to Vietnam, asking for their assistance in guaranteeing maximum security and safety for Vietnamese citizens and their
families and to create conditions for repatriation flights, according to Hang.
Amid extremely fast and complex developments
of the situation in Ukraine, Vietnam’s ministries, sectors, and representative bodies in related countries have exerted all-out efforts to promptly arrange repatriation
flights for Vietnamese people and their families, and help them deal with
issues emerging and complete necessary procedures for bringing them home in a
shortest period of time, with transparency ensured and priority given to the
elderly, pregnant women, children, patients, and people with disabilities, the spokesperson said.
She informed that so far, five flights have been
conducted, safely repatriating about 1,400 Vietnamese people and their family
members who wish to return to Vietnam.
Hang also said certain problems have arisen during the citizen
protection process, such as some people changed their mind and chose to go in their own ways, or wanted to wait
for the war to end to come back to Ukraine. Others lacked or lost necessary
papers, or their papers were out of date, needing support from the
representative agencies. Vietnam’s representative bodies have made utmost
efforts and worked closely with authorities and Vietnamese people’s associations
in the host countries to address those problems, continually update information and swiftly handle emerging issues to quickly evacuate the expatriates from war zones, and
safely bring them to Vietnam.
Efforts by domestic authorities,
overseas representative bodies, airlines, and business sponsors have won over
support and high evaluation from both the expatriates and people in Vietnam,
Hang added./.