Three Vietnamese sailors jumped into the sea off Chile from a Taiwanese fishing boat where they said they had been overworked and underpaid. After staying in Chile for a time as illegal immigrants, they are scheduled to fly to Hanoi today. These sailors are Nguyen Duy Tung and Pham Van Xuan, both 25, and Le Xuan Trung , 35, who jumped from the fishing ship on the night of January 13, 2013 into a sea area 3 km from the shore of Chile when the ship was preparing to enter the sea of Argentina. Tung is a native of Phu Tho Province, while Xuan and Trung are from Ha Tinh and Nghe An Provinces, respectively.  The men said they had tied lifebuoys to the main part of a bed to make a raft for them to sail to shore after leaving the fishing ship where they said they had been abused. It took them two hours to get to the shore of Chile, where they called local police to help them contact the Vietnamese Embassy for help, although they were considered to have committed illegal immigration into Chile. They initially stayed in the custody of police and it was later arranged for them to stay at a hotel. In recent days, as they were preparing to return to Vietnam, the sailors stayed at the Vietnamese Embassy. Under the judgment of a Chilean court, they are to be returned to Vietnam by air under the escort of Chilean police, who will hand them over to the Vietnamese authorities in Hanoi. “I worked for the Taiwanese fishing boat under a 2-year contract at a salary rate of US$450 with a total income of up to US$600 if a bonus was included. Before leaving Vietnam I had to pay a deposit of VND12.5 million ($600),” Tung told Vietnamese architect Ta My Duong, who is on a tour of South America and was stopped in Santiago. Duong read the story of the three sailors published in a local newspaper and then contacted them and reported their case to Tuoi Tre. “We had to work over 10 hours per day while our food was only cuttlefish that was dried by placing them on the chimney of the boat. On days when there was little work to do, we had to eat rice porridge. When we got sick, the boss did not provide us with medicine,” Tung said. Under their work contracts, they had to have US$100 deducted from their monthly salary, but none of the remaining money has been paid to them after they worked for the ship for three months, he said. Asked why they jumped off the ship, Tung said, “From the ship we could see many plantations of grapes on the shore of Chile. So we hoped that when we got there, we may have a chance to seek a job on such plantations.” Tung said they had decided to jump into the sea to seek a chance, since they could no longer withstand the hardship on the fishing boat.