"Stormy" sea trip
For many years, fisherman Nguyen Nam Trung (born in 1985) and Mr. Nguyen Van Tam, owners of boat QB 91698 in Trung Binh village (Bao Ninh commune, Dong Hoi city, Quang Binh province), have been fishing in the open sea.
In early April 2024, the QB 91698 and its crew began a new fishing trip, expected to last 16 days. However, with only 2 days left until the end of the trip, the voyage monitoring device lost signal on April 15.
As soon as he returned to shore, Mr. Trung submitted his documents to the Quang Binh Fisheries Branch to receive fuel support funds according to Decision 48. But because the journey monitoring device lost connection for more than 6 hours, the documents were returned.
Mr. Trung went to Branch many times to ask for the case to be resolved but was not successful. “Branch replied that we were waiting for confirmation from the network operator, but now several months have passed and we have not heard anything,” said Mr. Trung.
On average, he receives about 75 million VND in fuel for each trip. The support helps him a lot in fuel costs, and the crew also has more income. When the files are left, along with the money advanced to go to sea, he still needs to borrow more money to pay his crew members. Each trip has from 10 to 13 crew members, each person is paid about 5 million VND.
“I borrowed money from the shipowners to pay my crew, and then I will gradually pay off the debt. My family is worried and hopes that the branch and the network operator will find a solution so that we can quickly receive the support money,” Trung confided.
Currently, Mr. Trung has been informed about installing a new parallel system, but he has not done it yet. He estimates that the new system will cost about 18 million VND, not including shipping costs.
Mr. Trung said: "Since the monitoring system failed, we have been unable to sleep or eat well. If we lose signal for even a few minutes, we worry and look for ways to fix it."
Borrow more than 100 million VND to pay off boat passengers
In a similar situation, 3 sea trips of Mr. Pham Thanh Binh (born in 1984, My Canh village, Bao Ninh commune) have not had their records approved because they lost signal for more than 6 hours.
Mr. Binh is currently operating the QB 91669 ship with a capacity of 550 horsepower and a length of 18 meters. For many years, he has been the main breadwinner of his family, taking care of his 4 school-age children.
On his previous sea trip in April 2024, his device lost signal. The next two trips, the network system was unstable, losing signal from 4am to afternoon in the morning, sometimes from 0-10am. Because the time lasted more than 6 hours, his 3 applications for fuel support have not been processed yet.
For each trip, his ship has from 5 to 8 crew members, each person's salary is 5 million VND/trip.
“The application has not been approved yet, I have borrowed more than 100 million VND from relatives and banks to pay for the trips as well as the crew. I just hope the government will quickly resolve the issue to support the people. Because the family's main income comes from these sea trips, we still have to continue to stick to the sea, which is also the job we have been doing for many years,” Mr. Binh sadly said.
Previously, Lao Dong Newspaper had many articles reflecting the issue of "Fishermen suffering because they cannot submit documents to receive fuel costs", nearly 70 fishermen in Bao Ninh commune could not submit documents to receive fuel costs because they lost connection to monitor their journey.
The households requested that the network operator VNPT take responsibility and send opinions to the Provincial People's Committee to resolve and support according to Decision 48 of the Prime Minister.
