Thu, Apr 13, 2023 page2

• Bodies found ashore not trafficked: investigators

  Treacherous JOURNEY: Fourteen Vietnamese who had been deported for working illegally hiked on foot to China to attempt to cross the Strait, their families said

  • By Jason Pan / Staff reporter
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  Ten Vietnamese whose bodies were found washed ashore last month were not victims of human trafficking and were attempting to return to Taiwan for work, investigators said yesterday.

  Using a photograph of 14 people, likely taken when they boarded a vessel in China on their way to Taiwan, along with documents and other information found on their bodies, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) working with the Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei identified eight of the men and two women, the bureau said.

  The group traveled from Vietnam to China’s Fujian Province, where they bought a motorized fishing boat to travel across the Taiwan Strait, and their vessel likely capsized due to inclement weather, CIB International Criminal Affairs Division head Dustin Lee (李泱輯) told a news conference in Taipei.

  “Our investigation in Taiwan, in collaboration with Vietnamese authorities to obtain information from families of the victims, has thus far produced no evidence linking them with criminal organizations or international trafficking rings,” Lee said.

  Four of the women in the photograph remain missing, and it is uncertain if they survived, he said.

  A CIB officer stationed in the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vietnam has been working with the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security and police in Hanoi to gather information from relatives of the victims, he said.

  “Vietnamese authorities said the group of 14 were from the same north Vietnam township and knew each other. They were between 30 and 42 years old, and all had previously worked in Taiwan in agriculture and fishing. Records show that all 14 had been deported after they were found to be working illegally in Taiwan,” Lee said.

  The group told their families they planned to return to Taiwan to work, and in the middle of February traveled by foot on mountain trails to enter China’s Guangxi region, where they took a bus to Fujian’s Pingtan, the CIB said, citing interviews with their relatives.

  They took photographs and left records of their journey on their cellphones, Vietnamese authorities told investigators.

  They pooled their money to buy the boat in Pingtan for about NT$1 million (US$32,782), and likely departed on Feb. 14, which was the last day of known contact with their families, Lee said.

  One of the men, surnamed Nguyen, had apparently swum to an offshore wind turbine off Changhua County, climbing the ladder to its platform, but had no means of calling for rescue, and died of exposure and dehydration, the CIB said.

  Examinations by coroners determined that the rest had drowned and that no foul play was suspected, Lee said.

  The bodies of nine men and five women, all identified as Taiwanese and determined to have drowned, also washed ashore in February and last month, he said.

  Investigations have so far indicated that their deaths were accidental or suicides, he said.

  Prosecutors last month formed a task force to investigate the deaths and are continuing to work with Vietnamese authorities, while they search for the four missing women and seek to determine whether human trafficking or criminal organizations were involved, he said.
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