Sixteen of the 20 bodies that have been found on Taiwan’s west coast since February have been identified, with nine of them being Taiwanese and seven Vietnamese, police said yesterday, adding that they were investigating whether a wooden boat might be linked to the bodies.
Most of the deaths are believed to have resulted from a boat that capsized in the Taiwan Strait during a human trafficking operation seeking to bring Vietnamese to Taiwan to work, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said.
Investigators examined a boat found off Chiayi County to assess whether it had been carrying the people. The boat had capsized in high waves, CIB officials said.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration
A vessel has been listed as missing from a fishing port in China’s Fujian Province, they said.
Since Feb. 18, 20 bodies have been recovered, one of them on a wind turbine platform off Changhua County, International Criminal Affairs Division official Dustin Lee (李泱輯) said.
Vietnamese IDs were found on two of the bodies, while a mobile phone on another had a photograph of 14 people that was most likely a group shot taken just before they boarded a vessel, investigators said, adding that the photo was a vital clue in the case.
The seven Vietnamese were identified by fingerprinting and DNA tests, while the Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei assisted with the work and contacted relatives of the deceased people in Vietnam, Lee said.
“We have received reports from local police and the Coast Guard Administration of bodies washing up on shore since last month [February],” Lee said. “Examinations show that nine dead bodies were Taiwanese, with most of them identified by their family members.”
“Thus far, no evidence links them to the Vietnamese or involvement in maritime human trafficking,” he said.
After autopsies were conducted on the nine Taiwanese, prosecutors and police units clarified details with family members and friends, determining that they had drowned after being swept out to sea or had committed suicide, Lee said.
Normal procedures were followed for families to collect the bodies for burial, he said.
The seven Vietnamese — five males and two females, with one surnamed Tran — and four as yet unidentified bodies were likely among the 14 people in the photograph, he said.
CIB investigators said that the human smuggling operation had probably been bringing people from northern Vietnam.
They likely paid criminal organizations to arrange travel from Vietnam to the port in China, from where Chinese attempted to transport them across the Taiwan Strait, but the vessel capsized in rough seas, he said.
Data showed that the identified Vietnamese had previously worked in Taiwan, but absconded and were caught and deported back to Vietnam, investigators said.
They wanted to return to Taiwan because they can earn higher wages than in Vietnam, they said.
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