The return of hundreds more Myanmar fishermen found in slave-like conditions in Indonesia could be in jeopardy. The government is quibbling over definitions that determine how and how fast they will be repatriated.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the embassy in Jakarta separated the rescued men into two different categories: trafficking victims and non-trafficked slaves.
The 91 who have been identified as trafficking victims are being fast-tracked for repatriation, while homecoming for the other 247 may be delayed until funding can be found for them, a senior official at the embassy said.
The government began a series of highly public repatriations many funded by private corporations following an Associated Press investigation in March that documented thousands of mostly Myanmar fishermen marooned on remote Indonesian islands. Some of the men had spent up to 10 years enslaved on Thai fishing trawlers where abuse including beatings, electric shock and starvation was rampant.
In May and June, Myanmar repatriated in groups more than 500 citizens who had been stranded on the far-flung archipelago.
While Myanmar does not allow overseas employment in the abuse-rife fishing sector, agencies, smugglers and brokers often dupe workers onto the boats. Bribes, allegations of debt-bondage or drugs are used to get the men onboard trawlers that illicitly ply international waters. The International Organisation for Migration has estimated that as many as 4000 such exploited fishermen are stranded in the area surrounding Benjina Island, while other islands could be host to similar situations.
How many more Benjinas’ [are there] in those remote, far-flung island groups in the sprawling archipelago? How many more vessels are crewed by trafficking victims? And how many thousands of men are still out there awaiting rescue? Paul Dillion, an IOM project coordinator in Indonesia, wrote earlier this month.
Since June, IOM says it has found an additional 363 Myanmar victims of trafficking on fishing vessels at a nearby seaport. The Myanmar embassy filed a report on 338 of them last week.
Just 91 people out of the 338 were trafficked. The remainder are not trafficked persons, but people who were forced and enslaved to work, said U Sein Oo, a director general under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The ministry’s distinction between those who were trafficked and those who were enslaved appears contrary to Myanmar law, however.
Under the 2005 Anti-Trafficking in Persons Law, anyone who has been transferred, transported or hired with the purpose of exploitation including forced work or slavery is considered a victim of trafficking.
The 2005 law also makes clear that the government is responsible for arranging and carrying out the repatriation of identified trafficking victims.
U Sein Oo said the repatriation of the 91 identified victims is a priority, while the embassy in Jakarta said the enslaved but not trafficked fishermen would be delayed as officials are negotiating compensation from the offending fishing companies.
Repatriation for them will require funds because they were not trafficked, said a senior official from the Myanmar embassy who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official added that the ambassador has already verified the identity of the Myanmar fishermen and is waiting for the immigration department’s approval.
Police Brigadier General Win Naing Tun from the police force’s anti-human trafficking unit told The Myanmar Times he was not sure why the embassy had drawn such an ambiguous division between trafficked and enslaved fishermen.
We don’t know what data the embassy used to make that decision, he said. We also do not know about the real condition and will have to send a delegation to find out further information.
2015 The Myanmar Times