Thirty-six Asian men, including 15 Vietnamese, were rescued by Costa Rican police officers from two fishing boats in Puntarenas City. These captives had been working as slaves.

Some Asian workers (left) were rescued from two boats.

A Cost Rican newspaper, La Nacio, reported that of 36 Asian workers, there were 15 Vietnamese, 13 Indonesian, 5 Philippines, 2 Taiwanese and 1 Chinese. All of them were very thin and nearly exhausted. They are now being treated at a hospital in Puntarenas and will be sent home in several weeks.

Jorge Rojas Vargas, director of the Costa Rican Judiciary Investigation Agency, stated that these Asian workers were recruited by a fishing company in Puntarenas with a monthly salary of $250.

Since they arrived at Juan Santamaria Airport in San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital city, the firm seized their passports and brought them to Puntarenas. They were forced to work on two illegal fishing boats.

Vargas described how these workers had to work 20 hour days and often were beaten by whips. They were provided with little cooking, so they were always hungry. Whenever the boats landed at the Puntarenas port, they had to work at construction sites. They were not paid even a penny.

“They had to live in extremely unhygienic conditions. This was inhuman working condition,” revealed Vargas. Director of Costa Rica’s Immigration Agency, Mario Zamora, concluded: “This is modern slavery.”

A group of nine Vietnamese workers reportedly jumped into the sea to escape from one of the boats. They hid in Puntarenas for two months before they decided to report the case to local authorities.

After two months of investigation, police raided the two ships and also two houses owned by the Puntarenas band on April 11. Some Asian workers had worked as slaves for at least two years. Police arrested the firm’s director, a Taiwanese man, and the captains of the two boats, one of whom is a Taiwanese and the other is a Costa Rican.

Suspects claimed that they sent the Asian workers’ salaries to their families.

Costa Rica’s authorities termed this as a human trafficking case and the three suspects will face imprisonment sentences of between 8-16 years.

Source: Tuoi Tre/La Nacio