Van Don Airport Customs pulls an all-nighter “to combat”

Customs officials at Van Don Airport supervised hand luggage

Self-isolation at the workplace

While implementing customs procedures for immigration people, at Van Don International Airport, many customs officials are directly contacting immigration people from European and Asian countrieswhere the outbreak of Covid-19 is occurring day by day. Not only that, though they are not in the list of concentrated isolation, they have to implement prevention measures and control epidemics (wearing masks and protective clothing), as well as self-isolation at workplace.

"To ensure the safety of relatives, many Customs officials, due to concerns about contact with infected passengers, have chosen to self-isolate and not return to their families during this time," leader of Cam Pha port Customs Branch (Quang Ninh Customs Department) shared.

Most international flights arriving at Van Don International Airport are not on the fixed route. To ensure procedures run smoothly for each flight, the Customs working group always ensures 100% number performs duty at the border gate in order to handle routine work, as well as unexpected work arising.

Leaders of Cam Pha port Customs Branch said that since the beginning of February, dozens of international flights have arrived at Van Don International Airport, which were not on the fixed route. On the other hand, although some flights planned to land at Noi Bai International Airport, they were forced to land at Van Don International Airport due to practical conditions. Therefore, each customs officials must be proactive in their daily activities (eating, drinking and rest), ensuring readiness to perform tasks when a job arises.

“The flights when landing at Van Don International Airport are usually at dawn. Depending on the flow of passengers, the time for implementing procedures from the first passenger until the last passenger leaves the airport lasts several hours. Therefore, dozens of officials performing duty at the port (Customs, aviation security and medical quarantine ) must be "sleepless" to ensure procedures operating smoothly," a customs official said.

Strictly supervise luggage

A leader of Cam Pha port Customs Branch said that, the Customs working group at Van Don International Airport was 11 officials divided to perform the division of monitoring hand luggage, working on shifts for directing. This complied with the directives of the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

Customs official performed scanning goods.

To ensure the supervision and management of luggage of passengers that arrived from Covid-19 epidemic areas, the Customs force will only check luggage manually if they have sufficient grounds for suspicion of violation (luggage in excess of prescribed duty-free quotas, suspected luggage is in the list of goods banned from import).

Besides that, arranging customs officials to supervise luggage where the aircraft landed.

If a passenger is declaring of having luggage, they must implement a customs declaration and conduct an inspection at the isolated area. If the luggage was stored at the airport, customs would conduct an inspection when the passenger came to receive.