Vietnamese workers return home after 18 months of being kidnapped by pirates
"For the rest of my life, I will never forget the image of those brazen robbers with guns ready to shoot. Each person was locked in a cage, not allowed to shower...", sailor Nguyen Van Hai recalled the 18 months he was held captive by pirates.
Being the first person to step out of Noi Bai airport on the afternoon of July 24, Tran Minh Tri, a young man in a daze, burst into tears when his relatives rushed to hug him tightly. "Right now, I just want to go home," the 21-year-old man with dark skin sobbed. Following Tri, sailor Ho Xuan Huong's eyes were red when both her father and mother came to welcome her. "Now that you're home, I won't let you go anywhere, we'll just have each other," Huong's father sobbed.
Kidnapped sailors look exhausted on the day of their return. Photo: Nguyen Hung.
All 12 sailors and their relatives from Nghe An and Ha Tinh could not hold back their tears. The adults hugged and kissed, patting their heads as if they could not believe their eyes when they saw their children escape from the hands of Somali pirates. All the sailors were thin and dark after 18 terrible months.
The youngest of the 12 sailors captured by Somali pirates, Nguyen Van Hai appeared quite calm. "I will never forget the image of dozens of robbers with guns ready to shoot when they jumped on the ship and kidnapped the entire crew," said the 20-year-old sailor. At the same time, another fishing boat was also nearby but managed to escape after detecting the pirates early.
Hai said that the FV Shiuh Fu No1 ship was captured by a group of pirates while fishing near the Somali sea. After being controlled by two canoes full of pirates, the crew tried to escape but were too late. The pirates cut off all communication, seized weapons and imprisoned everyone below deck. Discovering that there were two guns hidden in the boat's hold, the pirates tied the hands and feet of all the crew members backwards, tied them up and stretched them for an hour, causing everyone to almost faint.
They also used the stolen ship as bait to hijack other ships and boats. The crew members in the basement were forced to serve and pull the canoe for the pirates. Occasionally, they forced people to call their families to pressure them to pay ransom. Nearly a year later, the pirates returned the ship to the bay. From there, the Vietnamese and Chinese crew members were taken deep into the desert. Every few days, the pirates moved locations until the entire group was deep in the forest.
"In the forest, each person was locked in a cage close to each other like animals, living in the open for months without being allowed to bathe. Each day, each person was only given two meals a day, breakfast and dinner, a bowl of white rice and water," Hai recalled, his face showing shock.
Luu Dinh Son, a 21-year-old sailor, was held in solitary confinement by pirates who spread rumors that they had killed him and two others to demand more ransom. Photo: Nguyen Hung.
Therefore, the entire crew lost at least 10 kg, many people got sick but were not given cold or flu medicine... Hai said, he used to weigh more than 60 kg, quite muscular but now he is much thinner, luckily he just got a haircut so he looks much less thin.
Calculating the total time he was away from home and arrested was 32 months, this young man said that before leaving, he had a girlfriend back home and had also planned to get married. "My girlfriend is probably married now," Hai smiled sadly.
Meanwhile, other crew members said that although the goal was to get a large ransom, the pirates did not hesitate to threaten and beat the hostages. The most frightening time was when they kidnapped a Vietnamese and two Chinese and said that the three were killed because they had not paid the ransom. Since then, the crew members have not been able to contact home, and only the captain has called the ship owner and the company to negotiate.
Later, everyone learned that it was a tactic to isolate the hostages and demand more money. "They said if the money was delayed, more people would be killed. At that time, no matter how optimistic we were and how hard we tried to encourage each other, we never thought that we would ever be able to return home," sailor Nguyen Thanh Tu recalled.
Late in the afternoon, after completing some paperwork and procedures with the company, the sailors followed their families back to their hometowns. Saying goodbye to everyone, Hai and the other young sailors said that none of the 12 dared to think about going to sea again.
"For now, we just want to reunite with our families. I crave a home-cooked meal and a long sleep. As for work, we'll have to wait until these terrifying memories subside before we dare to think about it," Hai confided.
On December 25, 2010, the FV Shiuh Fu No. 1 (Taiwan) ship was kidnapped by Somali pirates, along with 12 Vietnamese and 14 Chinese crew members. For more than 18 months, the crew members’ families occasionally received phone calls from their children in Somalia informing them of the situation. Many called home in panic, demanding to send ransom money or else the pirates would cut off their limbs or kill them. On the night of July 17, 2012, the fishing boat and its crew were released by the pirates. |
According to Vnexpress - nt