KUALA LUMPUR: Over 2,000 Vietnamese stranded in Malaysia due to the suspension of international travel amidst the Covid-19 pandemic are expected to fly home soon.
A Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the group comprises tourists, those with expiring work permits and their families.
"They have been unable to fly home due to the Movement Control Order (MCO) since March," he said.
It is learnt that the Vietnamese embassy in Kuala Lumpur is working with the Immigration Department and Foreign Ministry to facilitate their departure.
The embassy had also sought the assistance of the Vietnamese community here to provide shelter and food to their countrymen who have been stranded here for the past four months.
"A majority of them had run out of finances and could no longer afford to stay at rented premises and hotels," said the spokesman.
On another matter, the spokesman said about 200 Vietnamese who had completed their jail sentences in Malaysia for various offences will be deported via chartered flights.
They are part of over 1,000 Vietnamese jailed for offences ranging from illegal fishing, human trafficking, overstaying and working illegally.
Senior Defence Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob had announced that foreigners in Malaysia may now return to their respective countries.
Earlier, he announced that undocumented immigrants in Malaysia were being deported to their respective countries from June 6.
It was reported that the deportation exercise began with 2,189 Indonesians who were sent back to Jakarta, Medan and Surabaya by flight.
The second batch of 1,294 Indonesians was sent back to Medan by the sea on June 22. Another 4,200 are expected to be deported soon.
Last Friday, Malaysia sent 5,280 illegal immigrants back to the Philippines.