The Head of the Consular Department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nguyen Thi Huong Lan, and three other senior officials at the ministry were arrested over an allegation of accepting bribes when issuing licenses for firms to carry out repatriation flights.

A repatriation flight. Photo: dantri

Chief of the Ministry of Public Security’s Office, Major General To An Xo, revealed the apprehension today [January 28], saying Lan, 48, was put into temporary detention and subject to prosecution.

Three others were also arrested for similar accusations, including Do Hoang Tung (vice head of the Consular Department); Le Tuan Anh (Chief of the Consular Department’s Office); Luu Tuan Dung (vice head of the Citizen Protection Sub-Department under the Consular Department).

According to Xo, the defendants are being accused of pursuing “personal gains” when processing licenses for certain firms to organize repatriation flights to bring Vietnamese citizens back to the country. Xo, however, did not go into details of the accusations.

The Ministry of Public Security informed since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Vietnam organized nearly 800 flights to bring home 200,000 citizens from 60 countries and territories.