Vietnam authorities probe missing Sri Lanka migrant vessel captain

The captain of a migrant vessel that carried over 300 Sri Lanka boatpeople had apparently deserted the ship and disappeared sometime after it foundered off the coast of Vietnam and started to drift, a media report said.

They were later rescued by Helios Leader, a Japanese car carrier and brought to the Vietnam port of Vung Tau. Lady R3, a fishing vessel out of Myanmar which they were travelling was adrift and taking in water.

“Before 303 Sri Lankan citizens were rescued by the Helios Leader ship on the afternoon of November 6, their ship had been stalled for nearly 40 hours, unable to maneuver and drifting,” Vietnam’s Toui Tre newspaper said.

“According to some Sri Lankans, when the incident happened, the captain of the iron-hulled ship LADY R3 left the ship and then did not return.”

It is not clear how the fishing vessels captain left and whether he decamped deliberately. The migrants were reportedly trying to reach Canada.

Many Sri Lankan fled the country during a thirty year war. In 2022 Sri Lanka is facing the worst currency crisis in the history of the country’s intermediate central bank.

Ironically Vung Tau port was also the location where thousands of Vietnamese fled the country after Saigon fell and also when the Dong collapsed like the rupee in the 1980s.

Authorities of Ba Ria – Vung Tau province were housing the migrants in three building and providing food.
They are also undergoing a health check and 20 were discovered with diabetes.

They were given balls to play volley balls and cầu đá a type of shuttlecock which is kicked like a football in a tennis court like area.

Twenty volunteers were sent to cut their hair, the report said.