Police demand lists of hotels, carriers involved in Covid repatriation flights

Police are gathering records on the organization of Covid-19 repatriation flights, including operating carriers and quarantine hotels as investigation into the pandemic flight scandal continues.

In a request sent to cities and provinces where returnees were isolated after flying home on the repatriation flights, the Investigation Police Agency under the Ministry of Public Security said it is seeking all documents related to applications to choose a hotel or resort as an isolation facility and decisions to approve such locations.

Related to isolation procedures, the ministries request that cities and provinces provide all information of businesses that had registered to provide accommodation for isolation purposes as well as clearly state the reasons for which businesses were granted or not granted isolation licenses.

All documents related to businesses applying to send experts and skilled workers to Vietnam are also requested.

The ministry further requires the dossiers of businesses organizing repatriation flights, as well as records on monitoring isolation.

The ministry’s request is the latest move in an investigation launched on Jan. 27 into the pandemic flight bribery scandal.

So far, 23 suspects have been arrested for giving and receiving bribes, and fraud, including top diplomats in Vietnam and overseas, health, immigration and transport officials, and business people.

The Ministry of Public Security said in June that each repatriation flight organized during the Covid-19 pandemic earned profits of several billion Vietnamese dong (VND1 billion = $43,600) after deducting costs.

Vietnam had operated around 2,000 repatriation flights to bring home residents stranded overseas.

By Pham Du – VnExpress.net – October 24, 2022