Vietnam anger after NZ fishing deaths....new update
Seven Vietnamese survivors of an old South Korean fishing boat that sank in Antarctic waters south of New Zealand have made it home but there is growing anger in Vietnam over the 21 deaths.
Vietnamese media have focussed on what they report are slave like conditions aboard Korean boats.
The 31-year-old No. 1 Insung, operating out of Bluff and fishing for toothfish in New Zealand's Ross Sea, sank on December 13, about halfway to Antarctica.
Of its 42 crew, five bodies were recovered while 17 others are missing presumed dead.
Four of the dead were Vietnamese.
The survivors returned to Bluff last week and have now reached home.
VietNamNet Bridge website, under a headline "Thousands of expatriate sailors face risks and difficulties" reported the public was "paying special attention to the sunken Korean fishing vessel in the Antarctic".
It said more than 1000 Vietnamese sailors currently work for Korean fishing ships with a similar number working on Taiwanese vessels.
Young sailors earn US$180 ($238) and experienced sailors US$210. Factory workers on average earn up to five times more.
"Sailors are also in the group of workers who face high risks of maltreatment and enslavement," the website said.Vietnamese media quoted Nguyen Thi Ngan mourns the death of her son Nguyen Van Son.
"Why is it so unfair? A poor one who has to work away from home is killed."
Nguyen Tuan was disconsolate, as was his wife, Dang Thi Lan.
"Oh my poor son! We've lost you now," she wailed.
After finishing high school their eldest son, Nguyen Tuong, had took a job that would take him far away from his family so that they could escape dire poverty.
Tuong's end came more than three months after his family took out loans worth US$769 to pay his way onto the ship.
Tuong's uncle, Nguyen Song Hao is among members of the crew still listed as missing, and whose survival has been ruled out.
"Cries of grief resounded in the two small communes of Ky Khang and Ky Ninh in Ha Tinh Province's Ky Anh District as relatives mourned the deaths of their relatives," Vietnamese media reported.
Nguyen Song Hao, an official in Ky Anh District's Ky Phu Commune, said many locals have left to work abroad in recent years in the hope of escaping poverty.
"More than 500 residents have been sent to work abroad, of whom 100 are working on Korean ships. Eight of them have died, mostly in Taiwan and Malaysia. So far, no one had died while working in South Korea," he said.
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"Many have had to borrow money to pay the fees for getting the jobs."
When Thanh Nien visited the house of one of the missing men, Nguyen Van Son on Tuesday, his mother and wife were already mourning.
His mother, Nguyen Thi Ngan, said Son had gotten married two years ago.
He went to South Korea to work and make money to support his family.
"He went to work when his wife was pregnant. Now his one-year-old son has lost his father," a neighbour said.
Not far from Son's house in Ky Anh District, Nguyen Van Thanh's parents were distraught.
"We hoped he could have survived when learning about the shipwreck yesterday. But today I was told that he was missing and the rescuers said that he is dead. It's very painful," Thanh's father cried.
Meanwhile in Korea the Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry would not speculate on the cause of the sinking.
"The exact cause of the sinking will be announced only after a close inspection of rescued crew members, including on First Mate Kim Seok-ki."
The ministry say the Insung had casualty and ship accident insurance for the crew. Family of the dead would receive US$166,000.
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