Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc visits the Border Guard High Command on Friday. —VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc urged the border guard force to continue to prevent illegal entries to the country in the fight against COVID-19.

The Government leader on Friday paid a visit to the Border Guard High Command to inspect the force’s readiness and to deliver New Year wishes to its officials and soldiers.

PM Phúc praised the force for its achievements in the fight against COVID-19, completing the dual missions of safeguarding the border, ensuring order and safety and preventing virus infection across the border.

According to Major General Lê Đức Thái from the Border Guard High Command, last year the force stationed 1,608 checkpoints with more than 10,000 officials and soldiers on duty to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. As many as 31,774 illegal immigrants were discovered and stopped.

The forces also launched proceedings and handed over 94 cases of organising and brokering illegal migration to competent agencies.

Not only being active in the fight against COVID-19, the border guard force also “plays a pioneering role in natural disaster prevention, control, search and rescue,” as well as in cracking down smuggling cases across borders, said PM Phúc.

Those efforts have protected national sovereignty, he said.

He asked the force to uphold its readiness to prevent illegal entries across borders and respond to natural disasters.

The force must pay attention to external affairs to protect borders and not be inactive in any case. The Ministry of National Defence and the Border Guard needed to modernise border protection equipment and install border surveillance cameras, he said. VNS