39 People Missing As Chinese Fishing Boat Capsizes In Indian Ocean

Chinese President Xi Jinping has demanded all-out efforts to rescue the missing people and urged relevant departments to activate the emergency response mechanism immediately.

Thirty-nine people went missing after a fishing vessel capsized in the Indian Ocean, IANS reported on Wednesday. A total of 17 Chinese crew members, 17 Indonesians, and five from the Philippines were on board the vessel when it capsized on Tuesday. A multinational search and rescue operation was under way to locate the mariners. Chinese President Xi Jinping has demanded all-out efforts to rescue the missing people and urged relevant departments to activate the emergency response mechanism immediately. Xinhua reported that vessels from Australia and other countries had also joined the search. Merchant and fishing vessels in the area were also searching for survivors Wednesday.

“All-out efforts” must be made in the rescue operation, Xi said according to AP. Li ordered unspecified measures to “reduce casualties and strengthen safety management of fishing vessels at sea to ensure safe maritime transport and production,” AP reported.

Xi has directed the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Chinese Ministry of Transport and Shandong Province to immediately activate the emergency response mechanism to verify the situation and deploy additional rescue forces, ANI reported.

He said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and relevant embassies abroad should strengthen contact with relevant local parties to coordinate the search and rescue work, as per the news report. He also directed to strengthen early warning alerts of safety risks for distant area operations to ensure the safety of people.

The vessel, named “Lu Peng Yuan Yu 028” and owned by Penglai Jinglu Fishery Co., capsized in the central part of the Indian Ocean around 3 am local time on Tuesday.

It was authorised to fish for neon flying squid and Pacific saury, according to data from the North Pacific Fishing Commission. It left Cape Town on May 5, en route to Busan, according to the MarineTraffic tracking website, which last located the vessel on May 10 to the southeast of Reunion, a tiny French island in the Indian Ocean.

Chinese fishing vessels operating illegally are known to sail “dark,” with their mandatory tracking device that gives a ship’s position either switched off, transmitting intermittently, or providing false identifiers.