Provincial police actively participate in removing IUU "yellow card" warning

The Economic Security Force coordinated with the Border Guard to propagate and remind ship owners at An Thuy fishing port before setting sail.

Prevent IUU violations

Ben Tre has 3 coastal districts, with a coastline of over 65km. According to statistics, the province currently has 3,442 KTHS vessels in operation, including 2,062 offshore fishing vessels. With assigned functions and tasks, the police forces at all levels in the province have promoted the movement of All people protecting national security, regularly coordinating propaganda, dissemination, legal education, raising awareness, promoting self-consciousness in law enforcement, sense of responsibility of fishermen in protecting national security, sovereignty of seas and islands of Vietnam and committing not to KTHS infringe upon foreign waters. Mr. Nguyen Van Dung, a fisherman in Tiem Tom town, Ba Tri district, said: “I always comply with the regulations on fishing as recommended by the government and relevant agencies. Because if we continue to violate the regulations, the “yellow card” will not be lifted, and will continue to cause damage to the fishing industry, including our own interests.”

According to regulations, offshore fishing vessels are required to install a journey monitoring device to monitor the movement and exploitation of the vehicle. Through this device, the economic security force and the provincial police have promptly detected many vehicles crossing the border and entering foreign waters, calling them to return to Vietnamese waters, not allowing violations in exploitation and fishing activities, and contacting vehicles that have lost signal to request the connection to be reopened to ensure continuous monitoring.

Through monitoring since the beginning of 2022, the authorities have detected 1,224 ships with 3,955 signal loss times, of which 571 ships lost signal for more than 10 days. Most of the cases that were reminded have been corrected, however, there are still some cases of avoidance and intentional violations that have been administratively sanctioned according to the provisions of the law.

Along with propaganda and mobilization measures, the police force has strengthened the work of grasping the situation, promptly detecting, exchanging information, coordinating verification, and proposing competent authorities to handle cases of illegal, unreported and unregulated violations of the law on KTHS with common errors such as not installing a journey monitoring device, losing the journey monitoring signal for more than 10 days, allowing the ship to cross the border of Vietnam's waters or transferring the journey monitoring device to another ship... as well as violations in the process of implementing EC recommendations.

Contribute to removing the "yellow card"

In the process of fighting against IUU, the police force has played a good role in advising the Provincial Steering Committee 689 and the Provincial People's Committee to effectively implement policies and solutions to help remove the IUU "yellow card" warning. Coordinate with functional agencies such as the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Provincial Border Guard to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of state management in the field of fisheries; effectively implement the coordination regulations in the management of fishing vessels operating KTHS at sea with the provinces in the region and the Coast Guard Command of Regions 3 and 4. In addition, the Provincial Police has proactively advised local Party committees and authorities and guided functional agencies to rectify and overcome loopholes and shortcomings in the implementation process; at the same time, effectively handle complex emerging issues related to security and order.

Lieutenant Colonel Tran Thanh Thanh Hoang - Deputy Head of the Economic Security Department, Provincial Police said: “We have drastically implemented solutions to prevent IUU in the past time with the aim of raising fishermen's awareness of compliance with legal regulations on KTHS and complying with EC recommendations. We and local authorities are determined to strictly handle violations, ensuring that from now until the EC inspection team comes to Vietnam for the fourth inspection, there will be no cases of provincial fishing vessels violating foreign waters.”

The efforts of the police force and functional agencies have brought about many positive changes, the most important of which is that the awareness of self-compliance with legal regulations on KTHS of the majority of ship owners and fishermen has gradually improved, demonstrated by the fact that violations were quickly corrected when reminded, ensuring sufficient operating conditions and in the first quarter of 2023, there were no fishing vessels of the province KTHS in foreign waters.

Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Van Buoi assessed: “After 5 years of implementing measures to prevent IUU, the police sector, especially the economic security force, has been proactive, close and synchronous in coordinating with the agricultural sector to prevent, minimize and eventually end the situation of KTHS fishing vessels violating foreign waters as well as other violations related to the field of IUU, contributing positively to the local IUU prevention work in recent times”.

It is expected that the inspection delegation of the European Commission will come to Vietnam to inspect and evaluate the implementation results of recommendations related to KTHS activities at the end of May 2023. With the efforts of all levels and sectors, it is hoped that the IUU "yellow card" warning will be removed, paving the way for the Vietnamese seafood industry to integrate and develop in the coming time.

Article and photos: Dang Khoa

Source link: https://baodongkhoi.vn/quoc-phong/bien-dao/cong-an-tinh-tich-cuc-tham-gia-thao-go-canh-bao-the-vang-iuu-a114168.html