Taiwan and other countries are still searching for two Taiwanese fishing boats and their crews that have gone missing. The Foreign Ministry said on Monday that Taiwan is coordinating assistance from Palau, the Philippines, and the United States.
One of the missing boats is a tuna longliner, which stopped transmitting signals on February 18, when it was 414 nautical miles northwest of Palau. At least six aircrafts have been sent to the area to search for signs of the boat and crew.
Foreign Ministry official Fan Hou-lu (范厚祿) says that Taiwan immediately contacted its embassy in Palau when the boat went missing in the country's vicinity. Palau is one of Taiwan's 14 diplomatic allies, and Fan says the embassy will continue working with Palauan authorities to search for the boat and its crew.
The other fishing boat capsized in the Indian Ocean last Wednesday and was found by the Mauritius Coast Guard, but there has been no sign of the crew. The Foreign Ministry is working with Taiwan's representative office in South Africa to continue to search for the missing 16 crew members.