Tri Listiyarini, Jakarta – Maritime and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti pledged to closely monitor fishing companies operating in Indonesia after a year-long Associated Press investigation revealed at least one Indonesian firm – and likely many more – using slave labor.
Susi said she was disturbed to learn Pusaka Benjina Resources had been keeping 327 workers, mainly from Myanmar, working in captivity without pay, on pain of torture or even death. Her office has since shut down the company, based in Benjina, in Maluku's Aru Islands district.
"We will launch an investigation; we will sanction [those involved]," the minister said on the sidelines of her visit to a fishing village in Pangandaran, West Java.
"In Benjina, even though the victims are foreigners, Indonesia felt it must take action because [the case] happened within Indonesia's jurisdiction," she said.
Susi said her office quickly inspected other fishing companies operating in Benjina and found 1,185 fishermen working there, mostly from Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar, in slave-like conditions.
The minister said there was rampant evidence that other firms in the area were using slave labor – and had been for years.
With the help of sympathetic locals, the AP interviewed the Myanmar workers, who said they were forced to work 22 hours a day, whipped with toxic stingray tails, denied any pay, and barred from returning to their home country or tell anyone about their plight. Some were put in cages.
The director general for monitoring maritime resources, Asep Burhanuddin, said the ministry formed a task force with the local prosecutors, immigration offices, the Indonesian Navy and National Police.
On Friday, days after the story broke, task force officials deployed to Benjina for a crackdown. "We were able to confirm that there are slavery practices [at PBR]," Asep told Detik on Sunday. "Some were electrocuted for the tiniest mistake like falling to sleep. This is inhumane."
The workers, some of whom have been slaves for nine years, were taken to the Tual, some 100 kilometers west of Aru Islands, where they were repatriated.
Company officials have been charged with human trafficking and violating the Manpower Law while the task force investigates who else may have been involved.