As many as eleven out of the nineteen Chinese fish farmers working under the cover of aquaculture experts in the coastal province of Khanh Hoa’s Cam Ranh Bay have offended labor and residence regulations and have been penalized, the Command of the provincial border police announced yesterday.

Chinese raise fish in Cam Ranh Bay

Specifically, Khanh Hoa authorities imposed a VND3.5 million fine on each of the five Chinese nationals who collect, raise, and export fish in Cam Ranh City for their failure to register for temporary residence, and VND15 million for not applying for a labor permit.

Authorities are also handling the case of the remaining six illicit fish farmers in Ninh Hoa Commune and Nha Trang City, and these people are set to be expelled.

Border police also said that all of the aquaculture animals raised by the Chinese fish farmers on the province’s waters are sold to Chinese traders, who bring the products home through the Viet Dien Bach 01 vessel, which is licensed to travel within Vietnam’s waters between November 2011 and July 2012.

A handful of Chinese nationals have been raising fish on the waters of Cam Ranh Bay for the last ten years, yet local authorities seemed to ignore this illicit farming until it was unearthed by a series of Tuoi Tre coverage last week.

It was learned later that the border police of Khanh Hoa did detect some Chinese illegally engaging in fish farming in the province as early as 2009, but was not until now that a crackdown was imposed.

Colonel Ho Thanh Tung, head of the scouting department of Khanh Hoa Command of border police, said that in 2009 their force found six Chinese raising fish on the floating farms owned by the Song Phong and Khai Hoang companies on the waters of Cam Ranh Bay.

Two of the men did not have a single personal paper, while the remaining four did not have labor permits for Vietnam, said Tung.

Border police reported the case to Khanh Hoa’s People’s Committee on November 12, 2009, and the committee, in response, issued a document, signed by its deputy standing chairman, on November 26, 2009, ordering relevant agencies to handle the case.

“However, authorities and agencies in Cam Ranh Town at that time, and Cam Ranh City later, were not determined to crack down on the illegal foreign fish farmers,” added Hung.

“Almost three years later, on May 17, 2012, an inspection team of local authorities caught seven Chinese violating labor and residence regulations, after which the handling process was boosted.”

Tuoitre