The Thai authorities, with the coordination of the Vietnamese Embassy in Thailand, have completed procedures to repatriate 40 Vietnamese fishermen, who were arrested and put on trial for illegal violations of the Thai sea territory.

Of those fishermen, 24 will go back to Vietnam on February 9, just one day before the Lunar New Year. They have been detained for between two and three months.

Vietnam and Thailand have signed a fishery cooperative agreement, under which the two sides will work together to prevent and deal with the violation of territorial waters by each other’s fishing vessels. However, it is difficult to solve the issue thoroughly.

The Vietnamese embassy in Thailand has cooperated with relevant Thai agencies to deal with these cases.

As a result, nearly 500 fishermen imprisoned in Thailand have been sent back home.

Also on the occasion of the upcoming Lunar New Year festival (Tet), 33 out of 48 Vietnamese fishermen being detained in West Kalimantan province, Indonesia , will be released for family reunions.

A working team of the Vietnamese Embassy in Indonesia has visited the fishermen at Pontianak prison in early February. The officials also worked with local authorities to accelerate procedures for the release of the fishermen.

According to the provincial Department of Marine and Fisheries, 54 Vietnamese fishing vessels have been seized with nearly 260 fishermen imprisoned since 2009 due to illegal fishing in the sea area of West Kalimantan.

VNA