Nine fishermen who were captured and then released by China were picked up by a mission of the National Committee for Search and Rescue at 15 PM today, VNA reported.
All of the fishermen are in good health conditions, VNA quoted a mission representative as saying.
Rescuers said that they would arrive home by late evening on Oct. 26.
A previous day, the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced time and place Chinese authorities to hand over the fishermen. The committee set up the mission and sent a salvage ship to reach the place today.
Chinese authorities sent a fishing patrol vessel to lead the fishermen’s fishing vessel to come to the Vietnamese water area.
The nine fishermen were arrested by Chinese authority as fishing in the Vietnamese water area last month. China said that they had used explosive devices to catch fish. The Vietnamese Government, however, had rejected the accusation and continuously asked Chinese authorities to free the fishermen.
Two weeks ago, China said it had released the fishermen and their vessel and provided food and petrol for them to go home.
However, while the fishermen were on the way to return home typhoons Meranti and Megi respectively appeared in the East Sea, forcing them to avoid the typhoons on Paracel Islands.
Last week they signaled SOS as their vessel was damaged by super typhoon Megi.
