Police in Vietnam have detained two skippers for allegedly sending seamen to Thai waters for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU), a practice for which the European Commission (EC) has imposed a ‘yellow card’ warning on Vietnamese seafood since 2017. 

The police department of southern Kien Giang Province on Friday said it had detained and prosecuted Vo Minh Man, 43, and Nguyen Van Hien, 46, who captained fishing boats KG 91771-TS and KG 91020-TS, respectively, for allegedly ‘organizing illegal exits for others to commit illegal fishing in foreign waters.’

The arrest came after the two men were sent back to Vietnam by Thai authorities who had captured them for their IUU fishing acts. 

rAccording to the case file, Thai functional units on March 6, 2024 caught the two vessels, with a total of 15 people onboard, illegally fishing in Thai waters. 

Thai authorities later released the boat KG 91020-TS with all fishermen onboard, while continuing to keep the vessel KG 91771-TS along with its entire crew in custody until December 18, 2024.

In the wake of the arrest, the Kien Giang police department requested local fishers to strictly comply with the laws and regulations governing fishing activities at home and abroad.

In a related development, the provincial People’s Court in January 2024 gave sentences of one to eight years in prison to four fishermen for committing IUU fishing in Malaysian waters. 

These cases occurred amid the relentless efforts by Vietnam’s concerned agencies for the removal of the IUU fishing ‘yellow card’ warning that has been imposed by the EC on Vietnamese seafood since October 2017.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on November 4, 2024 issued a directive asking all relevant agencies to prepare for the EC's upcoming fifth inspection on IUU fishing, with the goal of lifting the yellow card warning as soon as possible.

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