Coast Guard Intercepts Boatload of Illegal Immigrants

[Cover Picture: Liberty Times Network]

A Chinese fishing boat carrying 19 illegal immigrants from Vietnam was intercepted by Kaohsiung Coastguard officers yesterday evening, April 9, 2017.

According to a Liberty Times Network report, 10 females and 9 males had paid people smugglers around US$6,000 (NT$180,000), to be transported to Taiwan. The Vietnamese had traveled to the coast of China, where they boarded the fishing vessel.

Coastguard officers arrested the 19, along with 3 boat crew around 12 nautical miles off the coast. The people smugglers had intended to land the illegal immigrants by inflatable boat in the middle of the night, in the vicinity of Dong gang fishing port in Pingtung County.

All 10 of the females and 8 of the males had previously worked in Taiwan, and had been repatriated for overstaying their work visas.

United Daily News reports that the immigrants had boarded the vessel in Lianjiang County, Fujian Province, China, and had spent 56 hours in a cramped cabin.

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