ASIATODAY.ID, JAKARTA – The Indonesian Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Sakti Wahyu Trenggono, revealed the high death rate of crew members (ABK) on fishing vessels, which is thought to be due to cases of slavery.
From the information he received during a working visit to the Aru Islands, there were fishing boats that dropped off the bodies of crew members at the port.
“Not long ago I went to Dobo. I saw that the activity of Dobo Harbor was very high. In fact, I received news that on certain ships, no less than 10 people had died. The dead were dropped off there. In fact yesterday when I went there the day after there were “Those who died there are floating there. We don’t know what the case is, but the identification is that something happened,” said Minister Trenggono, quoted on Saturday, June 8 2024.
Based on this information, Minister Trenggono immediately asked the Head of the Maluku Regional Police, who was part of the working visit group to the Aru Islands, to immediately carry out an investigation. Firm action needs to be taken against the parties responsible if slavery of crew members on board fishing vessels actually occurs.
His party will also coordinate with the Minister of Manpower because there are indications that slavery also occurs on foreign fishing vessels that employ Indonesian crew members.
As happened on the Run Zheng O3 ship which was captured by the monitoring team of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries in Arafura waters some time ago.
On the 800 GT ship, dozens of Indonesian crew members were found who admitted they were forced to work extra hours and had not received a single penny of their salary after working on the Russian-flagged ship for two months. According to ABK, recruitment patterns are based on promises of high salaries, not competency.
He hopes that in the future there will be no more cases of slavery on fishing vessels. His party has actually taken anticipatory steps, one of which is by requiring fishing vessels to have proof of a maritime work agreement (PKL) with the crew. PKL files are one of the requirements for fishing vessels to obtain permission to go to sea.
In addition, his party has dozens of educational units which every year produce more than 2000 graduates who have competencies in the fields of fishing, marketing and processing of fishery products. According to him, human resources with competence are one way to break the chain of slavery on fishing vessels.
“The recruitment of crew members cannot be haphazard, they must be educated first. We have an education unit and it can be done there. That is one example,” concluded Minister Trenggono. (ATN)
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