Slavery at sea: 4,000 fishermen stranded on Indonesian islands

Many migrant workers were abandoned by boat captains after Government crack down on illegal operators

March 27, 2015 03:20 pm | Updated 03:20 pm IST - JAKARTA

In this image from video, workers from Myanmar load fish onto a Thai-flagged cargo ship in Benjina, Indonesia.

In this image from video, workers from Myanmar load fish onto a Thai-flagged cargo ship in Benjina, Indonesia.

An estimated 4,000 foreign fishermen are stranded on remote islands in eastern Indonesia and believed to have been enslaved, an aid group has said.

Many of the migrant workers were abandoned by their boat captains following a Government moratorium on foreign fishing that has docked vessels to crack down on illegal operators, said Steve Hamilton, deputy chief of mission at the International Organization for Migration in Indonesia. “It is reasonable to expect many are victims of trafficking, if not outright slavery,” he said, adding the group has been working for years with Indonesian authorities to repatriate trafficked fishermen.

About a quarter of the men are in Benjina, a town that straddles two islands in the Maluku chain, according to an Indonesian official who recently visited the area. The AP reported Wednesday that men were locked in a cage at a fishing company in Benjina. Journalists interviewed more than 40 migrant workers from Myanmar who said they had been brought to Indonesia from Thailand and forced to work on trawlers with Thai captains. Some are runaway slaves who have lived in the islands for five, 10 or even 20 years.

22 hour shifts

They described horrendous working conditions while at sea, saying they were forced to drink unclean water and work 20 to 22 hour shifts with no days off. Almost all said they were kicked, whipped with toxic stingray tails or otherwise beaten if they complained or tried to rest. They were paid little or nothing.

The yearlong AP investigation used satellites to track seafood caught by the slaves from a large refrigerated cargo ship in Benjina to Thailand, where reporters watched it being unloaded onto dozens of trucks over four nights. The lorries were then followed to a number of processing plants, cold storage operations and the country’s largest fish market. From there, U.S. Customs records were used to link the fish to the supply chains of some of America’s largest supermarkets and retailers.

The report prompted the U.S. government and major seafood industry leaders to renew their calls on the Thai government to crack down on slavery at sea and to punish those responsible. Thailand’s biggest seafood company, Thai Union Frozen Products, announced that it immediately cut ties with a supplier after determining it might be involved with forced labour and other abuses.

Thai and Indonesian leaders have said they are investigating and will take action to end slavery.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.