A fishery official said Monday that an initial investigation has failed to substantiate media reports that five Indonesian workers had starved to death aboard two Taiwanese fishing boats in waters off Senegal in Africa.
Huang Hung-yen, deputy director of the Fisheries Agency under the Council of Agriculture, noted that inquiries of the nation’s fishery business sector had produced no results that can confirm such reports.
“We have also asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to help confirm whether the reports are true,” Huang said when asked to comment on a CNA report from Jakarta.
The CNA report quoted an Indonesian labor official as telling local media the five Indonesian workers had been working on the Bintang Samudra 68 and the Bintang Samudra 11, two Taiwanese fishing boats owned by Hsin Chiang Fisheries or Chi Hsiang Fisheries Co., Ltd.
Huang said Bintang Samudra does not sound like a name Taiwanese would give to their fishing boats and ocean-going Taiwanese fishing boats are regulated by international organizations which assign inspectors on board the ships to record their operations.
Still, he said his agency would further investigate the reports.
The Central News Agency