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Image: Infobae / FIS
What the Uruguayan Justice found when inspecting the Chinese fishing vessel from which they threw a bottle asking for help
URUGUAY
Wednesday, July 05, 2023, 03:00 (GMT + 9)
There were crew members who had not touched port for two years and back salaries
While walking along the coast of Sauce de Portezuelo, near the Laguna del Sauce Airport and the Punta del Este beaches, a woman found a bottle containing a message. It was written in a language she didn't understand, but there were some letters she recognized: “SOS”.
The woman understood that it was a request for help and she immediately notified the authorities of the Maldonado prefecture, who referred the matter to the Prosecutor's Office.
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Source: Infobae / Wiki / FIS
A translator had to be used to understand what the text said: “Hello, I am a crew member of the ship Lu Qing Yuan Yu 765, they locked me up in the company. When you see this paper, please help me call the police! Help-Help”.
Despite the fact that Chinese vessels usually keep their transmitters turned off to avoid detection, the expert in Chinese fishing maneuvers in Latin America, Milko Schvartzman, managed to locate the vessel in the radar system just in front of the port of Montevideo.
Prosecutor Diego Pérez was on duty, but in the end the person in charge of the case was Leonardo Morales. This Monday, with a court order, the Uruguayan authorities and a person who translated the language inspected the ship for an hour and a half, according to El Observador.
On board the ship, they found that there were 15 crew members, all of Chinese origin. In statements to that medium, the prosecutor Diego Pérez said that they did not encounter "any strange situation" although they did have a "particular work regime and wage claims."
That is the explanation of discontent. The crew had a contract until June 29 and had not received their salaries. In addition, they had been advised that they would not be paid for the rest of the time they were on the ship. The crew members intended to change ships.
"No situation of deprivation of liberty was verified, beyond the fact that the crew members have been at sea for two years without touching port," Pérez added.
The other prosecutor in the case, Leonardo Morales, told the Telemundo newscast that all the crew members were in good health and that they found no crime. The Uruguayan Prosecutor's Office, therefore, ended its proceedings.
None of the travelers claimed to be the author of the message they sent to the Uruguayan coast.
This claim is one more of the complaints made against the fleet of fishing boats that the Chinese regime deploys in Latin America. The port of Montevideo is, according to Schvartzman, the "main support for the South Atlantic fleet" and according to his investigations, at least one deceased crew member disembarks there per month.
Companies often hire workers from Indonesia, the Philippines or Africa under tempting promises that are then broken.
 “All the activity of the foreign fishing fleet in the port is covered up by the complicity of the authorities. There is no will from the Uruguayan government to fight against illegal fishing or against human rights abuses on board. The Uruguayan State benefits from the illegal activities of these vessels," says Schvartzman.
In 2019, the Uruguayan government inspected only 33 vessels out of the more than 320 that operated in the port of Montevideo that year. Of those analyzed, only one was Chinese, according to the expert's data.
This week there was another particular situation with a Hong Kong fishing boat that was sailing 2,000 kilometers from the Uruguayan coast. A Chinese crew member suffered a head injury that caused convulsions and loss of consciousness. The Uruguayan Navy and Naval Aviation assisted him and had to transfer him by helicopter to Maldonado.
Author: Pedro Tristant | Infobae
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