This afternoon, June 17, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang, Head of the National Steering Committee on Combating Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (IUU), chaired a national online conference to review the National Steering Committee on IUU. Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Vo Van Hung attended the conference at the Quang Tri province bridge.
Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Vo Van Hung and delegates attending the conference at the Quang Tri bridge - Photo: Le Minh
Reporting at the conference, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the situation of Vietnamese fishing vessels violating regulations on exploitation and catching seafood still occurs. Statistics show that from the 4th inspection (October 2023) to May 2024, there were 518 vessels violating maritime boundaries, an increase of 311 vessels compared to the same period; 164,365 vessels disconnected their voyage monitoring devices (VMS) when operating at sea from 6 hours to 10 days; 7,080 vessels disconnected their VMS when operating at sea for 10 days, an increase of 2,636 vessels compared to the same period; 2,471 vessels disconnected their VMS devices for over 6 months.
In particular, there has been a rise in cases of intentionally disconnecting VMS devices when operating in border waters, or intentionally sending or transporting VMS devices on other fishing vessels. In the two years 2023 - 2024, there were 16 incidents/19 vessels transporting 160 VMS devices from other vessels.
Currently, the country still has over 17,000 fishing vessels with the “three no’s”: no inspection, no registration, no operating license. Therefore, the reality of fishing vessels and fishermen being arrested and prosecuted by foreign countries for violating the country’s waters is still complicated.
Meanwhile, the handling of violations is still not drastic, from 2020 to now, only 81/378 vessels violating illegal fishing in foreign waters have been punished. Regarding the handling of the act of disconnecting VMS equipment, since the 4th inspection, only 17/172 vessels with a length of 24 meters or more have been punished for disconnecting VMS equipment for more than 10 days without returning to shore; 8,788 fishing vessels with a length of 24 meters or more have lost connection signal from 6 hours to 10 days at sea and have not reported their position periodically as prescribed, but only 18 vessels have been punished.
Prosecution of cases related to brokerage and collusion to send fishing vessels and fishermen to illegally exploit in foreign waters remains low due to lack of legal guidance.
The reason for the above situation was determined by the conference that the leaders of some localities have not really paid attention to the work of leadership, direction, and implementation. Organizations and individuals have not seriously performed their duties. The awareness of law compliance of a part of fishermen is not high. The coordination between functional forces in monitoring, supervision, investigation, and handling is not good.
From the developments of the situation, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang said that on April 10, 2024, the Secretariat issued Directive No. 32-CT/TW along with many documents of the Government and competent agencies on the implementation of the task of removing the "Yellow Card" warning of the European Commission (EC). In particular, on June 12, 2024, the Council of Judges of the Supreme People's Court passed Resolution No. 04 guiding the application of a number of provisions of the Penal Code on criminal prosecution for violations of regulations on illegal exploitation, trading and transportation of aquatic products.
Therefore, the coming time is considered a peak campaign to remove the "Yellow Card" and ministries, branches and localities consider this an important and urgent task.
The Deputy Prime Minister requested to strengthen coordination between functional forces, between central and local levels in performing tasks. Promote propaganda, especially focusing on propagating the content of Resolution 04 of the Supreme People's Court's Judicial Council so that people can clearly understand and strictly comply.
Strengthen patrols and controls to promptly adjust and deploy solutions to support fishermen. Be determined in tracing the origin of aquatic products. Strictly handle violations to deter and educate. Do not let IUU affect diplomatic work. Encourage localities to have their own policies to support fishermen in strictly implementing IUU.
Le Minh
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