Director of An Giang Provincial Police Department gave certificates of merit and rewards to Nguyen Van Ty (40 years old), Tran Van Truong (20), Le Binh Ho (48), Nguyen Thanh Cong (26); Ngo Van Sen (38), and Mai Van Hung (36) at a ceremony held on the afternoon of August 25.
The locals, who all live in An Phu District, rowed their boats out to save the workers who were swimming across the Binh Di River back to Vietnam after escaping from a casino in Cambodia on the morning of August 18.
Addressing the ceremony, An Phu District People's Committee Chairman Tran Hoa Hop, said that the brave actions deserved commendation.
"We honour their kind hearts and their big efforts and we hope that more citizens will help ensure people are safe and peacekeeping at our border area," the official said.Speaking at the event, Le Binh Ho shared that he was very happy to have helped in the rescue.
"I was working on the river bank when I heard loud screams coming from the Cambodian side," Ho remembered. "I immediately rushed my boat to the site to see dozens of people calling for help from the river. I tried to take 15 onto my boat and quickly ran to the shore. Then I came back to take 15 others. Other boats also joined in the rescue."
Ho and his boat that was used to take the workers home
Ho said that the workers were all exhausted at that time after trying to escape the chasing casino guards. Some were drowning. Meanwhile, many guards from the casino with canes and iron bars were standing on the river bank.
On August 18, 40 Vietnamese including 35 men and five women were found crossing the Binh Di River in An Giang Province's An Phu District from Cambodia.
The group said that they returned from Casino Rich World in Kaoh Thom District in Cambodia's Kandal Province. They belonged to a group of 42 Vietnamese people who previously illegally crossed the border into Cambodia to seek jobs. Some of them had worked for other casinos before coming to Casino Rich World. Here they were forced to work extra time with no payment, so they decided to flee.
At 9 am on August 18, they gathered and attacked the casino guards and then ran to the river to swim back to Vietnam. Some Vietnamese fishermen saw the fleeing group and rowed their boats to help take them home. However, one was detained by the casino guards and another, a 16-year-old boy, drowned in the river.