On December 28, the office asked theTaiwanese side, during the investigation and handling process, to ensure thesafety and personal honour of the detained in the humane spirit andsatisfactorily handle the case in line with law.
The local competent agencies should promptly inform the office about thesituation of the detainees and developments related to the case for coordinationin dealing with, while creating conditions for the office to pay consularvisits to those arrested.
The Taiwanese side said they will halt online visa granting for tourist groups under the “Kuan Hung Pilot Project,” an electronic visa programme designed to increase the number of quality tourist groups from the ASEAN member states of Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, plus India. They will apply measures to closely control delegations oftourists while entering Taiwan via local airports if unusual signs are found.
The relevant units of the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the VietnamEconomic and Cultural Office in Taipei will continue to closely work with domesticauthorised agencies and the Taiwanese side to address the case.
According to initial information, the Ho Chi Minh City-based InternationalHolidays Trading Travel Co. Ltd received this group of tourists from aTaiwanese partner to help them get tourist visas.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports andTourism said tourism activities and the eased visa policy for tourists in somecountries and territories have been abused for the purpose of illegal working.It doesn’t rule out the possibility that some organisations and individualshave taken advantage of this policy to set up rings illegally sendingVietnamese overseas.-VNA