Indonesian fishermen who died on Chinese boats faced abuse, 21-hour days, interviews reveal
When 20 Indonesian fishermen boarded the Chinese vessel Long Xing 629 in February last year, they had no idea what kind of high seas hell awaited them.
The seamen, aged between 20 and 35, said they were sometimes forced to work for up to two days without rest, subjected to violence and discrimination, and faced hunger and dehydration.
Within 13 months, four of them were dead and three of the bodies had been dumped overboard before the rest of the crew finally disembarked in South Korea last month. Those that survived returned to Indonesia last Friday, where they are still waiting for thousands of dollars in unpaid wages.
The case rocketed into the spotlight in Indonesia last week after video footage emerged of what appeared to be a burial at sea, prompting Jakarta to summon China's ambassador for an explanation and condemn the men's treatment by the company as "inhuman". The Indonesian National Police's criminal investigation unit has since launched an official probe which Beijing says it is cooperating with.
China's foreign ministry said on Monday it was investigating the case, but added some of the allegations were "inconsistent" with information it had gathered, though it did not elaborate.
Though the exact causes of the deaths remain unclear, testimony given by the fishermen to lawyers and advocates for the group in South Korea and Indonesia, as well as information gathered by the US-based Centre For Advanced Defence Studies (C4ADS), reveal the men toiled away in gruelling conditions before they died.
Besides being hit and verbally abused by the Chinese crew, the Indonesians said they regularly worked up to 21-hour days manning the boat's longlines or sorting catch.
They recalled meagre and unhygienically cooked meals of rice and bait fish, and said they were forced to drink salty, distilled seawater for the duration of the trip while the Chinese crew were given bottled water.
"Three crew members died on the vessels. One died after he arrived in Korea, during the 14-day quarantine," said Jong-chul Kim, a South Korean lawyer with Advocates for Public Interest Law (Apil), which interviewed the men about their ordeal while they were in Covid-19 quarantine in Busan before they returned home to Indonesia.
"The symptoms were pretty much the same: swelling of the body, chest pain, breathing problems. The crew member who died first started showing symptoms about one and a half months before he died, but the captain did not transfer him to a hospital," said Kim.
The Long Xing 629 was also allegedly involved in shark finning, where fins are sliced off sharks and their carcasses are tossed back into the ocean. Photos from the crew provided to the South China Morning Post by Apil show what appear to be piles of bloody fins strewn across the boat's deck.
Shark fins on the deck of the Chinese fishing vessel Long Xing 629. Photo: Handout alt=Shark fins on the deck of the Chinese fishing vessel Long Xing 629. Photo: Handout
Tens of thousands of migrant workers from Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia are recruited through manning agencies to work on Chinese, Taiwanese, Thai and South Korean fishing vessels each year, where anti-trafficking advocates say they run the risk of exploitation due to the lack of monitoring on the high seas.
As catches have become harder and more expensive due to overfishing, the seafood industry has increasingly employed vulnerable migrant labourers to remain profitable.
Activists say there is a direct link between declining stocks, rights abuses, and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing " otherwise known as IUU.
"IUU, such as shark finning and human rights abuses, continues to haunt the global distant water fishing fleet," said Arifsyah M. Nasution, Oceans Campaign Lead at Greenpeace Southeast Asia. "This seafood tainted with IUU and forced labour can then be served to consumers through the very complex and non-transparent seafood supply chain."
The men on the Long Xing 629 were recruited by four Indonesian agencies: PT Lakemba Perkasa Bahari, PT Alfira Perdana Jaya, PT Sinar Muara Gemilang and PT Karunia Bahari Samudera.
According to advocates and contracts reviewed by the Post, most were from poor families and were promised salaries of between US$300 and US$450 a month as part of a two-year binding commitment. But each contract contained deductions for fees and security deposits worth hundreds of dollars.
The cost of repatriation was to be borne by workers if they could not complete the term of employment and at least one agreement contained a clause allowing the recruitment agency to sue an individual's family for losses.
Kim, who has worked on cases involving the abuse of migrant fishermen for about a decade, said the contracts and conditions the men faced constituted "human trafficking and forced labour".
"Even though they faced this labour exploitation, they couldn't leave the vessel. There was a structural and contractual mechanism holding them at sea " sailing for 13 months without a port call," he said. "Their passports were confiscated by the captain as soon as they embarked on the vessel."
Crew members on the Long Xing 629. Photo: Handout alt=Crew members on the Long Xing 629. Photo: Handout
The men were sent to work in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean near Samoa by Dalian Ocean Fishing, the Chinese company that owns the Long Xing 629, according to C4ADS.
The Washington-based non-profit used open-source data, including corporate records, vessel ownership logs, vessel transmission data and crew testimony to identify the company, which owns a fleet of 32 vessels used for tuna fishing.
The first Indonesian fisherman Sepri died on the Long Xing 629 on December 21, 2019. The second, Alfatah, died six days later after he was transferred to the sister vessel Long Xing 802. In March, a seaman named Ari died after being moved to the Tian Yu 8.
None of the men received appropriate medical help and were instead fed unknown drugs, according to crew testimony.
Kim said the remaining seamen finally demanded to return home after the second death, and the fourth Indonesian national, Effendi Pasaribu, died in a Busan hospital on April 27 after they had disembarked in South Korea.
Ilyas Pangestu, chairman of the Indonesian Fisheries Workers Union (SPPI), which is advocating on behalf of the men, called for a detailed investigation into the deaths.
"There needs to be an autopsy or further medical research. They did not handle the health situation on the ships by consulting a doctor or getting proper medical care," he said, adding he was concerned about the working conditions on the boats.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi has condemned the treatment of the fishermen on Chinese fishing vessels. Photo: AP alt=Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi has condemned the treatment of the fishermen on Chinese fishing vessels. Photo: AP
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said last week that she had spoken to China's ambassador to Indonesia Xiao Qian to express her concerns about the living conditions of the crew members, and had asked for clarification on whether the burials at sea were carried out in accordance with International Labour Organisation (ILO) rules.
Dalian Ocean Fishing refused to comment and hung up on the Post when contacted about the case. It also did not reply to an email requesting comment.
The company, based in the port city of Dalian in Liaoning province, supplies premium tuna for "high-end sashimi" primarily to Japan, according to C4ADS and its website, which has recently gone offline. Chinese media reports indicate it also sells tuna to the mainland domestic market.
Indonesian seamen are seen on the Long Xing 629. Photo: Handout alt=Indonesian seamen are seen on the Long Xing 629. Photo: Handout
The plight of the Indonesian fishermen highlights the numerous challenges facing international authorities in stamping out alleged abuses in the global fishing industry.
The Global Slavery Index said incidents of forced labour, slavery and debt bondage in the fishing sector are well documented.
The nature of offshore fishing, particularly in distant water fleets, means labour abuses are often hidden and oversight is complicated by the complexity of jurisdictions at sea.
While there has been a drive to increase consumer awareness about the origins of seafood in recent years, complex seafood supply chains " which frequently feature transshipments that can disguise the origin of catches " mean many people are unaware of the true cost of the fish they are eating.
Additional reporting Karen Yeung and Catherine Wong
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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