Taipei Times
Jun 12, 2019 – Page 1
By Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporter
Representatives of nearly 8,000 Vietnamese who claim to have suffered from marine pollution caused by Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp
hold a news conference in Taipei yesterday after they filed a lawsuit against the company’s investors.
Almost 8,000 Vietnamese saying they have suffered from marine pollution caused by Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp (台塑河靜鋼鐵興業) yesterday filed a lawsuit in Taipei against the company’s investors, seeking NT$140 million (US$4.4 million) in compensation.
A spill of toxic chemicals from the Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團) unit’s under-construction steel plant in April 2016 caused mass fish deaths in waters off central Vietnam.
After a Vietnamese government report confirmed Formosa Ha Tinh’s accountability, the company in June of that year agreed to pay US$500 million in compensation for discharging water containing chemicals such as phenol, cyanide and iron hydroxides.
A coalition of Taiwanese and Vietnamese groups yesterday morning helped file the lawsuit at the Taipei District Court on behalf of 7,875 Vietnamese plaintiffs against the company’s main investors — FPG, China Steel Corp (中鋼) and Japan’s JFE Steel Corp — as they said many victims have not received compensation.
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