Eleven Vietnamese nationals who were trying to enter the country illegally were arrested off the coast of Miaoli yesterday, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported.
Responding to a tip-off, the CGA launched a pre-dawn raid on a Chinese fishing boat off the coast of Tunghsiao in Miaoli County and found 11 Vietnamese aboard.
The 11 Vietnamese — nine men and two women — were crammed into a small, wooden-hulled boat that had been built to accommodate only three to four people.
PHOTO: CHANG HSUN-TENG, TAIPEI TIMES
The coast guard found extra fuel aboard the vessel as well as instant noodles the illegal immigrants said they bought in Chaozhou City in China’s Guangdong Province.
The Vietnamese were taken to a police station in Tunghsiao for questioning, where they admitted to paying US$6,000 each for a ticket from Vietnam to China and then to Taiwan.
“It’s been two days since we left Chaozhou,” one of the illegals said, adding that they planned to sneak into Taiwan to seek employment.
CGA authorities said they also arrested nine Vietnamese nationals off the waters of Tunghsiao on June 5.
The nine said they had first traveled to China from northern Vietnam and then boarded a fishing boat heading for Taiwan.
In August 2003, 26 young Chinese women were thrown overboard by human traffickers, commonly known as “snakeheads,” off the waters of Tunghsiao. Six of the women drowned, while the remaining 20 were rescued by coastguard officers.
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
RSS