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.
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