Eight fishing boats from the central province of Binh Thuan with 60 fishermen on board have been detained for illegally fishing in Indonesian territorial waters, according to the provincial Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention, Search and Rescue.
Two fishing boats of Binh Thuan Province
The committee said at around 5 pm on July 24, eight vessels were stopped and then detained by an Indonesian vessel.
The committee has asked the National Committee for Search and Rescue and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Consular Affairs Department to provide the usual support to the fishermen.
Meanwhile, Colonel Nguyen Ngoc Hao, commander of Binh Thuan Province’s border guard force, admitted the Vietnamese fishermen might have violated the Indonesia waters.
Indonesia on July 26 returned 65 Vietnamese fishermen who were arrested in April and May for fishing in Indonesian waters.
Indonesia detained some 60 Vietnamese vessels and arrested 660 fishermen in the last year alone, with the numbers increasing on 2014.
