Vietnam’s tight lid on the coronavirus leaves many citizens desperate to return, with illegal border crossings on the rise

Nguyen Huu Khanh hasn’t seen his family since he moved to Madrid in 2017 to study Spanish – and he also misses pho with tender beef and the many other foods of his home. As soon as Spain reported its first Covid-19 outbreak in February last year, he booked a flight home to Vietnam, only to end up having to delay his return.‘I was worried about my visa, which was about to expire, and that I wouldn’t be able to return [to Spain] and would have to cut short my study and work, so I postponed my…