Vietnam has demanded that Taiwanese authorities investigate the cause of a fire that killed six Vietnamese workers at a Sican Co factory in Taoyuan on Thursday, after the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday listed names of people believed to have died in the blaze.
The fire broke out at about 2am on Thursday.
Investigators said that the bodies had not yet been formally identified as of yesterday, as they were burned beyond recognition.
Taoyuan police have asked the relatives of six Vietnamese workers to come to Taiwan as soon as possible to help with formal identification of the bodies using DNA testing, the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office said.
The ministry yesterday in a statement listed the victims’ names and called for Taiwan to expedite its investigation.
Five other Vietnamese workers escaped with injuries and were hospitalized. Four of them have since been discharged.
The Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei has asked the brokerage firm in Vietnam that recruited the workers to help take care of the injured and to negotiate with the employers and brokers to ensure the rights of the deceased and injured workers, the Vietnamese ministry said.
Sican chairman Chen Hung-ju (陳宏如) and factory chief Hsieh Chao-yi (謝朝怡) were yesterday released on NT$1 million (US$33,342) bail each, after being detained on Thursday night on charges of negligent homicide, but were barred from leaving the country.
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