JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Twelve Indonesian fishing vessel crew members who were stranded in Somalian waters since January have been safely repatriated, with the assistance of the Indonesian embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Indonesian embassy in Nairobi on 29 August stated that the workers wanted to be repatriated to Indonesia due to the expiring contract, exploitation, and poor working equipment and conditions aboard the vessel.
The Indonesian government also cooperated with The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), the Destructive Fishing Watch (DFW), and the International Justice Mission (IJF) in the process.
DFW’s Mr Abdi Suhufan told TOC on 30 August that the 12 fishermen arrived safely in Jakarta on 28 August.
“Now they are being quarantined at Wisma Atlet in Kemayoran (an emergency hospital for COVID-19 patients),” he said.
The crew initially had 13 people, but one of them was never found after jumping into the sea.
The fishermen were stranded for months in the Chinese-flagged boats Liao Dong Yu 535, 577, 571, 572, and 575 due to a dispute related to their contract terms with the boat owners, which expired in December 2020.
The Chinese operator claimed that they still obtained the contracts. Ironically, the workers’ manning agencies could not be reached due to legal problems.
A Somalian volunteer revealed in the joint vessel briefing report by EJF, DFW, and IJM that the Chinese vessel operator had agreed with the Indonesian manning agency for the fishermen to work for two years.
However, the Chinese operator then allegedly drew up a contract using an unknown agency in Singapore that will bind the fishermen to work until December 2021 in a bid to silence the boat crew members.
The report, posted on Facebook, revealed that fishers at the Liao Dong Yu 571 received abusive treatment from the Chinese captain.
At the end of the report, the three organisations recommended steps that can be taken by Indonesia’s related institutions.
Those steps include the investigation of the manning agencies that recruited those fishers for potential human trafficking crimes, the payment of compensation to the fishers (including for the deceased one), the facilitation of training for fishers before they depart so they are aware of their rights and obligations.
Acknowledging the problems faced by boat crew members overseas, Indonesia’s Minister of Manpower Ms Ida Fauziyah said that the government will continue to improve the placement procedure of the country’s fishermen overseas.
She added that the government is soon expected to finish the details of Law No.18/2017 on the Protection for Indonesian Migrant Workers (PMI), which includes protections for those working for foreign-flagged commercial and fishing vessels.
The overlapping placement procedure involving the Ministry of Manpower, Ministry of Transportation halts the protection efforts for fishers working at foreign-flagged vessels.
Mr Abdi stated that many manning agencies are not registered and do not provide appropriate training for workers, adding that contract deception starts when those agencies recruit fishers at their hometown.
“The contract promises a monthly salary of US$400. But in reality, many fishermen are paid lower than the amount stated in the contract, and they only receive the payment once,” he told TOC on 29 August.
The DFW data showed that 22 Indonesian fishermen died while working for Chinese-flagged fishing boats throughout 2020.
