‘VITAL CLUE’: An official said
that a photo on a mobile phone showed 14 people, with the image probably taken
as they were about to board a vessel in China
Coast Guard Administration personnel stand near a wind turbine off Taichung, where a body was found, in an undated photograph.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration
By Jason Pan / Staff reporter
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.
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.
Taiwan Coast Guard
finds 12 Vietnamese hiding on fishing vessel
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