Indonesia urged to impose tighter rules for Chinese fishing vessel recruitment after seamen’s deaths
- Some activists say a moratorium is necessary while Beijing and Jakarta probe the deaths of four Indonesians who worked aboard Chinese fishing vessels
- Companies reportedly post job offers on Facebook promising attractive wages to lure unsuspecting Indonesians with little seafaring experience
Moh Abdi Suhufan, national coordinator for activist group Destructive Fishing Watch Indonesia, said the moratorium was necessary while Beijing and Jakarta undertake investigations into what occurred on the Long Xing 629 fishing vessel, after seamen reported being forced to work for up to two days without rest or proper sustenance and being verbally and physically abused.
Suhufan said it had been indicated that the number of Indonesians facing such abuse was “more than what is currently known”, and if Jakarta continued to allow Chinese fishing companies to recruit in the country, “that means the government would let more victims be trapped in this abuse”.
In interviews with a lawyer in South Korea after they finally disembarked the Long Xing 629 in April following more than a year at sea, the 14 surviving Indonesian crew members described being made to work for up to 21 hours a day with only unhygienically cooked meals of rice and bait fish to eat and salty, distilled seawater to drink.
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Body of Indonesian fisherman dumped overboard amid allegations of abuse on Chinese ship
Since then, further reports of abuse have emerged on other Chinese vessels, with Indonesian police saying late last month that they had opened a case into the death of a fisherman aboard Lu Qing Yuan Yu 623, whose body was reportedly thrown into the sea off the coast of Somalia in January after he had been beaten with metal pipes and glass bottles.
