Moratorium is one option, however it is not the only alternative.
Jakarta – A moratorium on the recruitment of Indonesian seafarers on foreign fishing ships would only work as a short-term service to the issue of required labor at sea, a Foreign Ministry official stated.
” The moratorium will not automatically stop the practice. As a short-term option, it (moratorium) can be done,” Judha Nugraha, director for the Protection of People and Legal Entities Overseas at the Foreign Ministry, said at an online conversation on illegal activities in the fishery market, held here on Wednesday.
According to Nugraha, the main obstacle for the nation is the unlawful recruitment of migrant workers.
He mentioned the moratorium on migrant workers acquiring work in the Middle East as an instance where in spite of a ban, employees were still moving out for work unlawfully.
” Moratorium is one choice, but it is not the only option. The root of the problem is even more complicated than this,” he observed.
Nugraha highlighted some cases where the contract between sailors and employers did not specify protection for Indonesian crewmen.
For example, he said, there were no fixed working hours for the team, and the skipper had complete authority to choose them. Some sailors revealed that they worked for a minimum of 18 hours daily, he added.
” There is a requirement to have standards and securities (set) in making the work agreement,” he averred.
Nugraha said all Indonesian embassies and representatives abroad have a 24/ 7 hotline service, which number can be obtained on the Safetravel application.
National Organizer for the Indonesian Damaging Fishing Watch (DFW), Moh Abdi Suhufan, has actually alerted that human trafficking is simply the idea of the iceberg and a serious criminal activity that has continued plague the fisheries industry.
Assistance from all celebrations would be required “to encourage a multidoors service, to name a few, through multidoors police and management”, Suhufan stated.
He urged the police to completely examine cases of human trafficking and forced labor involving Indonesian crewmen dealing with foreign ships.
The federal government, he stated, would require to take tactical measures, consisting of improvement of management, working conditions at sea, competence and law enforcement, and access to innovation for victims so they can submit reports.
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