Border guards at the Vĩnh Gia Border Guard Station in An Giang Province. — Photo courtesy of Vĩnh Gia Border Guard Station

HCM CITY — The People’s Procuracy of the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province of An Giang will prosecute five people who illegally brought nine Vietnamese citizens across the border into Việt Nam. Four of them have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Colonel Đinh Văn Nơi, director of the An Giang Province Police, said on Jan 1 that the province issued a decision on prosecuting five defendants under Article 348 of the criminal law. 

They include Phan Phi Hùng, 42, Trương Chí Tài, 31, Lê Văn Dính, 31, and Phạm Thanh Hập, 31, all from Bung Nhỏ Hamlet, Khánh Bình Commune, in An Phú District. Trang Văn Út, 32, lives in Phú Lợi Hamlet, Phú Hữu Commune, in An Phú District.

The five are all under centralised quarantine at a medical quarantine site. After the quarantine period ends, An Giang police will arrest and relocate the people to the province for further investigation.

According to the police, Hùng contacted a person named Quậy in Cambodia to illegally bring people from Cambodia to Việt Nam. Hùng and Tài, Dính, and Hập used motorbikes to take the people across the border to designated areas in Việt Nam.

In addition, Hùng also worked with Trang Văn Út to use cars to take the people to Châu Đốc city in An Giang Province or other locations.

According to the police, the five people on December 24 allegedly took a group of nine Vietnamese across the border from Cambodia into An Phú District in An Giang Province illegally.

Four of the nine tested positive for Covid-19, including patients 1440, 1451, 1452 and 1453. Hundreds of people had close contact (F1) and secondhand contact (F2) with the infected cases.

All of the people involved in the illegal avtivities withheld information about where they had gone and what they had done, making it difficult for the authorities to conduct contact tracing and investigate the sources of the infection, the police said.

Also on Jan 1, the Vĩnh Long Province Police prosecuted patient 1440 for “spreading dangerous infectious diseases to people” in the province.

Most of the direct contacts of the infected people tested negative for Covid-19 in their first tests, while hundreds of other secondhand contacts have been told to isolate at home. 

The police are continuing the investigation.

Local authorities across the country have been ordered to ramp up efforts to crack down on illegal migrants since the outbreak in Đà Nẵng in July.

Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has also asked local authorities to impose stricter controls on illegal migrants from neighbouring countries, calling for strict measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

Việt Nam has been applauded for effectively containing the pandemic.

It will continue to remain on high alert as the Tết (Lunar New Year) holiday falls this year in February. — VNS