The bodies of two Vietnamese migrants were recovered from a beach in Taiwan on Monday morning after they were abandoned at sea by human traffickers, according to the Taiwan News.
Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration reported that a small lifeboat was spotted by radar at about 2 a.m. on Monday, leading to the discovery of the two bodies.
As the search expanded, three Vietnamese and two Taiwanese people were rescued at around noon.
The United Daily News reported the survivors had confessed they were migrants looking for jobs in Taiwan. The captain reportedly ordered them to jump overboard about 4.8 kilometers from shore, but their boat was flipped over by heavy seas, forcing them to swim to shore.
Taiwan’s history with Vietnamese migrant workers isn’t exactly stellar. Six Vietnamese died following a factory fire in December last year. Three months earlier, a 27-year-old Vietnamese migrant worker was shot dead by a policeman in Hsinchu County after he allegedly assaulted officers who were trying to stop him from vandalizing and stealing a car. Hsinchu police said they immediately transferred Phi to a hospital, but he was later pronounced dead.
Ever since Taiwan lifted a 10-year ban on certain categories of Vietnamese workers in 2015, Taiwan has been the leading destination for Vietnamese guest workers. According to the Vietnam Migration Profile 2016, Taiwan tops the list of destinations for Vietnamese migrant laborers, with over 274,000 Vietnamese migrating there within a span of five years from 2012 to 2016 for employment purposes.