Identifying the work of ensuring safety for fishermen in production and business activities in accordance with the law as a regular and important task, in recent years, the Provincial Border Guard (BĐBP) has presided over and coordinated with functional agencies to ensure security and order in the area; organized patrols, controls, detected, prevented, arrested and handled foreign vessels violating the sea area; registered, managed and inspected people and vehicles entering and exiting river mouths, bays, wharves and other service activities in the BĐGB area; detected, arrested and handled many cases related to crimes of buying, selling, storing and using explosives; coordinated with forces to effectively combat criminal offenses, drugs and social evils in the BĐGB area.

As a result, from 2020 to present, the Provincial Border Guard has organized 3,572 turns/19,842 officers and soldiers to participate in patrolling, checking and controlling the area; thereby detecting and collecting more than 19,000 packs of foreign branded cigarettes drifting to the coast of Thuan Nam district and Ninh Hai district; sanctioning 394 cases/401 subjects for administrative violations with a total amount of VND 573,125,000; arresting and prosecuting 5 criminal cases/6 subjects related to drugs; Coordinated to handle and resolve 48 cases related to illegal storage of explosives, the latest of which was at 8:30 a.m. on August 26, 2023, at the boat anchorage area of ​​Vinh Hy Bay, Vinh Hai Commune (Ninh Hai), the Vinh Hai Border Guard Station patrol team inspected and caught a subject illegally storing 1.474 kg of explosives. Through investigation and exploitation, the subject admitted to using explosives to catch aquatic products, the Station handed over to the authorities for handling according to regulations.

Officers and soldiers of Vinh Hai Border Guard Station (Ninh Hai) patrol and control the sea border area. Photo: VM

Along with strengthening patrol and control work, units, stations and posts under the provincial Border Guard regularly propagate and mobilize fishermen to commit to strictly complying with regulations on preventing and combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and sustainable fisheries development policies. Captain Hoang Xuan Truong, Deputy Political Commissar of Phuoc Diem Border Guard Station, said: The unit is assigned to manage and protect the sovereignty and security of the coastal areas in Ca Na and Phuoc Diem communes (Thuan Nam). These are two key areas with a large number of fishing boats operating at sea, of which large-capacity boats specializing in fishing in the open sea and offshore areas account for more than 60%. According to regulations, boats with a length of 15m or more must install a journey monitoring device during fishing and must not turn off the positioning device on the boat. Therefore, to ensure that people and vehicles participating in fishing at sea are safe and in accordance with the law, the working groups of the Station have propagated and mobilized ship owners to install equipment and commit to strictly comply with regulations on IUU. By September 2023, all 640 fishing vessels with a length of over 15m in the locality have installed voyage monitoring equipment. In addition, the Station also directed the Ca Na Border Control Station to coordinate with the Fisheries Control Station and the Ca Na Fishing Port Management Board to inspect and control all non-provincial vessels operating in the area, ensuring that no vessels fail to declare, submit fishing logs and do not install voyage monitoring equipment according to regulations on entry and exit.

At the same time, the provincial Border Guard force also actively coordinated with sectors and localities to establish 46 teams/258 safe vessels and boats; 74 teams/361 members of self-governing teams to protect national border security. Coordinated with 15 coastal communes, wards and towns to mobilize 15,205 households/20,118 people, 960 fishing vessel owners to sign a commitment in implementing the movement "All people participate in protecting maritime security". Thanks to that, the role of the people in fighting and preventing all kinds of crimes has been promoted as well as promptly providing the provincial Border Guard with many sources of information on the situation of fishing ground disputes, the situation of fishermen using explosives to exploit seafood, foreign vessels violating our country's sovereignty, the situation of security and order and other social issues occurring in the locality, serving as a basis for advising on timely resolving and handling complicated incidents occurring in the coastal areas.

Fisherman Nguyen Minh Dong, Head of the Safe Boat Team No. 10, Phuoc Diem Commune, said: The Team regularly propagates to members to raise awareness in participating in protecting the province's sea and island sovereignty, complying with the State's laws; promptly providing information on law violations occurring at sea to Phuoc Diem Border Guard Station for verification and handling. Under the guidance of the Station, fishermen in the Team have proactively equipped themselves with full journey monitoring equipment, complied with fishing regulations in permitted areas, recorded fishing logs and traced the origin of aquatic products. At the same time, they have actively mobilized other fishermen to strictly implement the laws on protecting sea and island sovereignty.

Colonel Ngo Van Lang, Political Commissar of the Provincial Border Guard, acknowledged: With the role of the core force, specializing in managing and protecting border security and sovereignty, after half a term of implementing the resolutions of the Party Congresses at all levels, the Provincial Border Guard Party Committee and Command have always proactively advised the Party Committee, the Border Guard Command, the Provincial Party Committee, and the Provincial People's Committee to effectively carry out the work of managing and protecting the sovereignty of the province's sea areas; at the same time, directing units in the force to closely follow the practical situation and task requirements to resolutely and synchronously deploy all aspects of border work.

Diem My