Passengers at Sydney international airport (Cre: Vietnamplus)

The flight was the joint efforts of Vietnamese authorities, representative offices in Australia and VNA, and competent Australian agencies.

The passengers included children under 18 years old, the elderly, sick people, students without accommodations due to university dormitory closures, and those in extremely difficult circumstances.

Given the Australian Government’s imposition of travel restrictions and border closures between states in response to COVID-19, Vietnamese representative agencies worked with local authorities of Sydney and Melbourne to help the citizens travel to the airports. They also sent staff to assist the citizens with boarding procedures. 

To prevent the spread of COVID-19, disease prevention measures were carried out during the flight. Upon landing at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, the flight crew and all passengers were given heath examinations and quarantined in line with regulations.

Vietnamese authorities and overseas missions plan to arrange more flights to bring more Vietnamese citizens home, depending on their need and quarantine capacity at home.

On August 7, another batch of over 340 Vietnamese citizens in Australia were also flown home safely on a flight of the national flag carrier.

Cre: Vietnamplus

Nguyen Xuan Nghia – COMM