A new government decree based in part on IOM’s ground-breaking research into human trafficking in the Indonesian fisheries will address chronic human rights abuses in the industry, the country’s Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) says.
“The research report is the only publication that provides a complete and critical description of the extent of human trafficking and forced labour in the fishing industry in Indonesia,” Minister Susi Pudjiastuti said Tuesday, at a Jakarta event marking assage of the new decree and release of the report.
“The ministerial regulation creates the certification mechanism to ensure the fishing industry here will be free of human rights violations.”
The decree requiring all companies in the fisheries sector to submit a detailed human rights audit to ensure the well-being of fishermen and port workers comes almost two years after media reports first revealed the brutal conditions aboard many foreign vessels reflagged to operate in Indonesian waters.
Working closely with its government counterparts, IOM Indonesia in March 2015 began identifying and assisting hundreds of victims of trafficking among foreign fishermen freed from conditions of virtual slavery aboard vessels confined to ports in eastern Indonesia following a blanket moratorium on the renewal of their operating licenses.
Subsequent research based on interviews with over 1,100 trafficking victims revealed widespread and systematic human rights abuses in the industry and endemic criminality ranging from document forgery to murder, flourishing within a regulatory environment in need of a significant overhaul.
“The government is to be commended for its many efforts to address the troubling details contained in the report into trafficking and labour exploitation,” said IOM Indonesia Chief of Mission Mark Getchell. “Working together with industry leaders is the best way to ensure the rights of workers are respected and that the nation can take full advantage of the economic opportunities offered by its extraordinary maritime resources in a sustainable manner.”
Formally released today, the Report on Human Trafficking, Forced Labour and Fisheries Crime in the Indonesian Fishing Industry is the first of its kind based on the detailed eyewitness accounts of men trafficked aboard fishing vessels. The Australian-funded research effort was coordinated with the KKP, with the assistance of Coventry University (UK) and the University of Indonesia.
