36 Visa-Free Tourists Varnish During Chartered Flight

Officials say they are searching for about 36 visa-free tourists who vanished last month shortly before their scheduled return, local media have reported.

The 36 are part of a group of 90 tourists, who arrived at South Korea’s premier resort island, Jeju, after departing the southern Vietnamese city of Nha Trang on a chartered flight, a report says.

The chartered flight was operated by VietJet Air on November 14, with the visitors traveling under a visa-free programme.

According to a Newsweek report, the visa-free tourists were exploring an initiative that allows nationals from Vietnam and 64 other countries to stay on Jeju Island for up to 30 days.

This means the group had until December 14 to remain there legally, Seoul’s Yonhap News Agency cited immigration officials as saying.

However, before their journey home, 38 members vanished during the final stop of their itinerary, leaving only 52 passengers to board the return flight. Authorities have been reviewing surveillance camera footage in their efforts to locate the missing tourists.

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The platform observes that the tourists’ disappearance is similar to a case from December 2018 in Taiwan. In that incident, four tourist groups of Vietnamese nationals

—153 individuals in total—arrived in Taiwan through the port city of Kaohsiung. Shortly after their arrival, they vanished, leaving only their tour guide behind.

Reports at the time cited local police saying that some of the missing tourists had been seen quickly leaving their hotels with luggage in tow and boarding shuttle buses and taxis.

There were suspicions that it may be a case of human trafficking with authorities working extensively with local law enforcement to track the missing visitors. By December 31 of that year, 14 had been apprehended, while nine others had turned themselves in.

“Vietnamese nationals have often been involved in voluntary smuggling operations to various Asian countries, frequently motivated by the pursuit of better economic opportunities.

“Smuggling networks are known to organize their transportation, which sometimes leads to dangerous situations”, the report said.