After a huge expose by the Associated Press revealed the slavery-like conditions used by a fishing company operating in Indonesian waters, the government, spearheaded by the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Susi Pudjiastuti, formed a special task force to investigate other fishing companies operating illegally in Indonesia.
Now Susi’s ministry has investigated 14 companies that allegedly practice human trafficking and keep their crews in slave-like conditions and reported them to the police.
“Those companies will be followed up on,” Susi told Tempo on Tuesday.
A Tempo source said that most of the fishing companies were owned by Indonesians. They are based in Jakarta but mostly operate out of the Moluccas. However, Susi was reluctant to mention the names of the 14 companies.
According to the Chairman of the Anti-Illegal Fishing Task Force, Mas Achmad Santosa, the alleged enslavement was found based on an analysis and evaluation of 16 companies fishing in the waters around Ambon, Maluku. Out of all of the companies, only two did not use foreign crews. As for the other 14, they were found to employ 2,061 foreign crew members on 119 ships.
“This violates the Fisheries Act, which prohibits the use of foreign crews,” Achmad said.
Achmad said the majority of foreign crew members were victims of trafficking from Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia. According to him, most were recruited through unnatural means.
Achmad said these cases constituted serious violation of human rights and that the government would put an end to it immediately.
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