2 Vietnamese among 49 crew members of missing Taiwanese ship identified

Among the 49 victims are two Vietnamese: Tran Van Cuong, 28, and Nguyen Van Thuan, 40, an official at the Department of Overseas Labor Management (Dolab) under the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Monday.

Cuong comes from the north-central province of Ha Tinh while Thuan hails from neighboring Nghe An Province, the official said.

Both sailors left Vietnam on January 16 as Vietnamese guest workers. Cuong and Thuan had been sent abroad for work by the labor export branch of the Vietnam Motors Industry Corporation and the International Manpower Supply and Training One-Member Co. Ltd., respectively.

Tuoi Tre has contacted Thuan’s relatives and the People’s Committee of Nghi Thiet Commune, where Thuan lived, but both his family and authorities said they knew nothing about the disappearance of the ship along with its crew.

The Dolab also said on Monday that the Taiwanese Fisheries Agency had confirmed that the Hsiang Fu Chun remains missing and Taiwanese agencies have been searching for the vessel and its crew.

"The most difficult part is that no one knows where the boat is," Taiwanese Fisheries Agency spokesperson Huang Hong-yen was quoted as saying by the United Daily News yesterday.

Authorities have asked the Argentine Navy, the EU Naval Force and Britain for help, the United Daily News quoted the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry as saying.

Also on Monday, Pham Thu Hang, deputy spokesperson of the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the ministry is collaborating with relevant agencies to search for the two missing Vietnamese sailors

In reply to reporters’ queries yesterday, Hang said the ministry has instructed the Vietnamese Economic and Cultural Office in Taiwan and the Vietnamese Embassy in Argentina to work with local offices in the search.

The ministry had earlier asked its Consular Department to coordinate with domestic agencies to identify the two missing sailors, Hang added.

The Hsiang Fu Chun was sailing about 1,700 nautical miles (3,148 kilometers) off the coast of the Falkland/Malvinas Islands, an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf, when it vanished, according to recorded satellite data.