The 10 Vietnamese sailors arrested in South Africa last week should not be tried for kidnapping and piracy as they were victims of abuse aboard a Taiwanese vessel, Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said Wednesday.

South African police boarded the Balena, a Taiwanese fishing vessel, and apprehended 10 Vietnamese crew members who allegedly commandeered the ship and held its first officer and captain hostage, newswire Independent Online reported.

The captain was unharmed while the injured first officer was treated by paramedics, it added.

The police boarded the vessel Balena at around 5.30 a.m. on May 5 (local time) and arrested the 10 Vietnamese sailors, Independent Online quoted national police spokesperson Director Sally de Beer as saying.

The 10 did not resist arrest and no force was used. They had allegedly taken over the vessel at around 3 p.m. on May 4, demanding that it enter the Cape Town’s Table Bay Harbor, the newswire reported.

It said further that the Vietnamese sailors, aged between 17 to 28, are facing charges relating to kidnapping and piracy – which involves any act of violence or detention on the high seas.

But Dung asserted: “From information we have received, the harsh working conditions and continuing abuse on the [Balena] vessel had prompted the Vietnamese sailors to react to the Taiwanese ship owner demanding they disembark and fly home.”

“They are victims [of abuse aboard the vessel] so they cannot be tried for abduction and piracy,” Dung said.

Dung’s views were echoed by Cassiem Augustus, a representative of the International Transport Federation in Cape Town.

Independent Online reported on May 6 that Augustus had suggested the men “acted out of desperation” after months of beatings and ill-treatment from their officers and fellow crew.

“They said that they had endured severe ill-treatment and were beaten during their service aboard the ship. One man’s nose was broken and another had a bad gash in his head, while another was refused permission to leave the ship for 19 months,” Independent Online cited Augustus as saying.

Augustus also queried whether South African authorities had any jurisdiction in this case, as the alleged crime was committed at sea aboard a vessel that is not South African.

De Beer had also said on May 5 that the 10 sailors claimed to have been ill-treated on board.

They had appeared at the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on May 7 but Magistrate Vusi Mhlangu postponed the case to May 20.

The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry had asked its embassy in South Africa to call for just treatment by local concerned agencies to ensure the legal rights of the sailors, Dung said.

Reported by Huong Giang