The Overseas Labour Management Department has asked five companies that dispatched 11 sailors to work on recently sunk trawler No. 1 Insung to join hands with Republic of Korea (RoK) parties to deal with the incident.

In an official dispatch, the department, a subsidiary body of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, requested the targeted companies send authorised officials to the RoK to work with concerned parties to identify the names of the dead, missing and survivors.

The department asked the companies to inform families and localities of the 11 sailors and provide support to help the families overcome their current difficulties.

It demanded the companies coordinate with the ship owner to bring the survivors ashore for treatment, and buy flight tickets and conduct necessary procedures to bring them home safely if they want to come back to Vietnam after being discharged from hospital.

According to the dispatch, the companies should seek permission from families to authorise the companies or the ship owner to work with concerned parties to make the necessary arrangements for dead or missing sailors.

The department also urged the businesses to hold funeral observances, bring home the ashes or bodies and assets of the dead in line with their families’ wishes, as well as laws and customs of the two nations, and coordinate with partners and the ship owner to fully pay salary, bonus and allowances and other benefits to the sailors.

The five companies include the LOD Human Resource Development Corp., the Traenco Joint Stock Company, the Civil Engineering Construction Corp. No. 1, the Southern Waterborne Transport Corp. and the Tourism, Trade and Labour Export Joint Stock Company.

The RoK Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has officially confirmed that 11 out of 42 sailors on board the trawler, which sank in Antarctic waters on the morning of December 13, were Vietnamese, with one dead, three missing and seven rescued.

Other crew members on the 614-DWT vessel include eight RoK citizens, eight Chinese, 11 Indonesians, three Filipinos and one Russian. So far, five crew members have been confirmed dead and 17 others missing. The search and rescue team has already decided to end search efforts due to freezing water and short survival times in Antarctic waters./.