Female ship owner refuses to pay ransom when vehicle is unjustly detained

Ca Mau Ms. Nguyen Thanh Thuy, 49 years old, a ship owner in U Minh district whose vessel was seized by foreign forces more than a month ago, has steadfastly refused to pay ransom despite repeated calls to negotiate a price.

On February 29, Ms. Thuy's family's fishing boat, captained by Mr. Trinh Van Nguyen, 40 years old, and 5 other people, departed from Kinh Hoi estuary, U Minh district to fish for squid. At around 6:00 a.m. on March 7, she received a call from Mr. Nguyen informing her that a foreign ship was approaching the ship.

"The captain only said a few sentences before the other end of the line hung up," said Ms. Thuy, adding that at that time she checked on her phone (through the cruise monitoring device) and saw that her family's ship was operating in Vietnamese waters.

Ms. Thuy talked about how to determine the location of a fishing boat on her phone through GPS tracking. This is the basis for her belief that the boat did not violate the law and did not agree to pay the ransom. Photo: An Minh

Later, over the phone with Mr. Nguyen, Ms. Thuy learned that the approaching ship "came from Cambodia." The people on board asked the Vietnamese crew to sit in the front of the cabin, then they removed and confiscated the GPS, fish finder, long-distance radio, two walkie-talkies and some personal belongings.

The group of strangers then steered the fishing boat through Cambodian waters, in the area of ​​Tang Island (about 16 nautical miles, equivalent to 28 km, from the Vietnam-Cambodia sea demarcation line). At more than 13:00 on the same day, these people asked Mr. Nguyen to call (on their phones) Ms. Thuy, requesting to transfer 4,000 USD to release the boat.

"Over the phone, a man repeatedly asked me to transfer ransom money for the ship, from 4,000 USD, then lowered it to 2,000 USD, then to 53 million VND," Ms. Hang recounted, saying that her ship did not illegally exploit aquatic resources in the neighboring country's waters. She then reported the incident to the authorities.

Unable to negotiate a price with the ship owner, the group of foreigners continued to hold the crew members. At around 11 p.m. the same day, they asked the Vietnamese crew members to pump them 10 cans of oil (30 liters each), but there was not enough on the ship. After taking the oil, the group of strangers returned the seized machinery and equipment and asked the Vietnamese captain to steer the ship away.

According to Ms. Thuy, at nearly 3 a.m. the next day, the captain steered the ship back to Vietnamese waters. After that, the ship fished normally, and on March 18, it reached shore. "The crew said they were very scared of being arrested, but luckily the ship had a journey monitoring device installed so they had no basis to detain it or demand money," Ms. Thuy said, adding that the captured fishing boat had a total investment cost of more than 300 million VND.

According to Ms. Thuy, the crew members said that the ship approached their vehicle with the word Cambodia on its hull. When they got close, two people on the boat carrying guns told the crew members to stay still, then drove the boat back to their country. "When they reached the foreign side, these people did not beat the crew members but only kept them on the boat," Ms. Thuy said, adding that because they had guns and the area was unfamiliar, the crew members had to comply.

Ms. Thuy's fishing boat docked at Kinh Hoi estuary at the end of March. Photo: Minh Duan

During the verification, the authorities of Ca Mau province determined that when the foreign country arrested Ms. Thuy's ship, it was operating in Vietnam's waters. The ship also operated in accordance with its fishing license, when leaving the port it ensured all the conditions according to regulations, and the journey monitoring equipment operated normally from the time it went to sea until it returned to shore.

Mr. Pham Quoc Su, Deputy Director of the Department of Justice of Ca Mau province, said that the functional sector unanimously proposed that the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee not punish Ms. Thuy's fishing boat. On the contrary, the department recommended that the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee assign U Minh district to reward the boat owner and crew to encourage the spirit of protecting national sovereignty at sea.

"There are many cases where people are in similar situations but they make their own agreements without reporting to the authorities, thus creating a bad precedent. In particular, when Ms. Thuy discovered that the ship was exploiting within the right area, she did not compromise but proactively reported to the authorities," said Mr. Su.

According to Mr. Su, in case fishermen violate the fishing area, the host country will send a diplomatic note to the Vietnamese consulate in that country to exercise the right to protect citizens according to international law. "There is no form of calling the fishing boat owner directly to request that they comply with their request, in any case," Mr. Su said.

The Ca Mau government has proposed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs request the functional forces of Cambodia and countries with historical waters with Vietnam to closely coordinate with each other in managing, exploiting, and properly implementing signed agreements; ensuring obligations and interests between the nations and people of the two countries.

An Minh

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