Some bad news, some good news: Freezer truck passengers remember the ordeal

Now they are relieved to learn that they will be helped to their destination.

Ha Van Danh, her son, and 13 other people spent two nights at a quarantine facility in Ham Tan District, Binh Thuan Province.

A few days ago, the group had tried to get out of HCMC and return to their hometowns, the pandemic having driven them to despair.

But he never expected to be stuck in a freezer truck and caught by police on the way.

“Almost everyone (in the group) has already left their rented accommodation in Ho Chi Minh City. If we come back now, we have no idea how to survive in this time (of pandemic),” Danh said.

Danh, 31, had left central Quang Tri province for Ho Chi Minh City decades ago to earn a living. He worked in several trades, including textbooks, to make ends meet. In the past three months, his life had been turned upside down after the novel coronavirus arrived in his neighborhood in Binh Tan district.

Her 7-year-old son, who had traveled from his hometown to Ho Chi Minh City to spend the summer with his parents, also found himself stranded due to social distancing restrictions.

He must have missed a year already and with the current Covid-19 situation, he could possibly miss another chance to enter freshman year. While his wife stayed, Danh decided to bring her son back to Quang Tri one way or another.

Thanks to an acquaintance, Danh managed to get hold of someone who could have helped people return to their hometown by car. The father and son were reunited with other people who were also desperate to return home. They were asked to get tested for Covid-19 and get a certificate of negative test result.

On September 12, they were picked up by cars from their home. They then switched to different vehicles as they were taken down winding paths to escape Covid-19 checkpoints en route.

On reaching Bien Hoa town of Dong Nai province, the group was transferred to a seven-seater car, and after spending another hour on the road, stopped in Long Khanh City and the driver took off. asked the group to get into a freezer truck to get through the next Covid-19 checkpoints.

Danh was surprised to hear about the freezer truck, as it was not mentioned in the deal he made. The drivers reassured the group, saying that they only had to go through two checkpoints at Dong Nai and Binh Thuan and that they would switch to another vehicle.

The group had no choice but to get into the truck.

“While the truck was running, its cooling system was turned off, then on, then off… It was unbelievably hot inside, everyone was sweating,” Danh said, adding that he was very worried about his young son.

After spending about an hour in the truck, the doors opened and police arrived. Danh realized that they had been taken. It was around 10 p.m. and the truck was parked near a restaurant on the section of National Road 1 in Ham Tan.

“When we were taken to the police station, we were worried that we would have to go back to where we came from. Most of us couldn’t sleep.

Nguyen Van Luan, 28, was also part of the group. The Ha Tinh native said he was a construction worker who stayed at an acquaintance’s house in Binh Duong province, on the border with HCMC. For several months, he had no income and could not hold out for long. So he decided to find a way home.

“They asked for 5.5 million VND each for a full package and said we could pay it when we got to our destination,” he said.

Like Danh, Luan did not expect him to be transported in a freezer truck and arrested by the police. He thought the trip back to his hometown had ended in disaster.

“But luck comes in case of bad luck. I am glad that the authorities in Binh Thuan are now considering allowing me to return home,” he said.

Please, not punished

Nguyen Duc Hai Tung, a senior official with the Binh Thuan People’s Committee, said the 15 people started their return journey on Wednesday morning.

“They should be sympathetic, not reprimanded. We will cover all their travel and food costs along the way,” Tung said, adding that Binh Thuan had asked the authorities in Quang Tri, Nghe An and Ha Tinh to cooperate with the government. return of the group, ensuring security measures against the coronavirus.

Police said the driver of the truck agreed to take the group to Covid-19 checkpoints for VND 700,000 per person.

The company that owns the truck was fined 15 million VND ($ 661.38); and the drivers of the cars that transported the people were each fined VND 7.5 million for breaking coronavirus safety regulations.

The incident is being further investigated, police said.