Embassy urges Vietnamese citizens in RoK to comply with local law

Passengers at Jeju International Airport of the RoK. Illustrative photo Yonhap/VNA

SEOUL – The Vietnamese Embassy in the Republic of Korea (RoK) has asked Vietnamese citizens to respect local laws, customs, and especially immigration regulations once entering the East Asian nation to avoid negatively impacting Việt Nam’s image and the good relationship between the two countries.

The request was made after the RoK’s Jeju Immigration Office and Jeju Tourism Organisation on Tuesday confirmed that 38 Vietnamese tourists who came to the island under visa exemption failed to board the flight back home as scheduled.

Those who did not return were among 80 Vietnamese holidaymakers from Nha Trang city, Việt Nam’s south-central province of Khánh Hòa, who boarded the November 14 flight to the RoK for their Jeju visit.

Korean authorities are extracting images from the CCTV system to locate the group of 38 Vietnamese tourists after they lost contact and disappeared at the last scheduled sightseeing spot on November 17. These people will be considered residing illegally after December 14, when the 30-day visa-free stay ends.

In order to promote tourism development, Jeju has operated a visa-free programme, allowing foreigners from 64 countries, including Việt Nam, to stay for up to 30 days without a visa.

The embassy told the Vietnam news Agency that it had learned about the incident through the press and reported it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and relevant authorities.

Currently, the embassy is closely coordinating with relevant agencies of the RoK and keeping a close watch on the case and is ready to cooperate with the agencies in the spirit of the Việt Nam-RoK strategic partnership. VNS