Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Dozens of child laborers in North Sumatra have been prevented from returning home for the Idul Fitri holiday, a local child welfare NGO has reported. The children work on Jermal, off-shore fishing platforms for local fishermen and companies.

"It really disturbed us. It is simply too much. The children have been treated as slaves with no right to celebrate Idul Fitri in the warm familiarity of their own homes and with their own families," Center for Child Protection and Study director Ahmad Sofian said recently.

Sofian and several other members of the center recently visited 16 off-shore fishing platforms at different locations in North Sumatra, including in Beting Bawal, Sialang Buah, Cermin and Kuala Tanjung.

"We wanted to present the platform workers, who had to stay on the platforms, with packages of Idul Fitri gifts. Little did we know that we would encounter several child laborers, who were forbidden from leaving the platforms by their adult foremen," he said.

The platforms are usually built of wood, 15 to 25 kilometers out to sea. They have an average area of 800 square meters, a third of which is set aside for worker housing. The workers lower huge nets below the platforms to catch fish.

During the two-day visit, the activists discovered that of the 83 workers on the platforms, 16 were children.

"The foremen prohibited all of them, including the child laborers, from leaving the platforms during the Idul Fitri holiday. The foremen said they were needed to guard the platforms," he said.

He said the local administration needed to improve its control and supervision of labor practices on the fishing platforms.

While the activists handed over 70 Idul Fitri packages to the workers, not all of those on the platforms were pleased to see them.

"At one platform, a foremen refused to let us enter. He also rejected the packages. Consequently, that platforms's six workers didn't get Idul Fitri gifts," activist Lasto said.

Each package contained a t-shirt, a pair of jeans, rice, sugar, milk, canned sardines and cooking oil.