Slavery in Paradise
After a yearlong investigation, and interviews with 40 current and former crewmembers of fishing vessels, the Associated Press exposed PT Pusaka Benjina Resources as a slave operation. The company's mostly Burmese employees told of being kicked, whipped with stingray tails and forced to drink unclean water. A number of them were imprisoned in a remote village in the Aru Islands called Benjina. Their catch was shipped as far afield as Europe and the United States.
Maritime and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti has been shocked by the case. "Local law enforcement officials said that there was no slavery. [But] we cannot deny it any longer, and we apologize to the world because we have been unable to see it." She revealed that there are still 1,185 fishermen from Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand on Benjina whose fate remains unclear. Twenty to thirty fishermen die in the Aru Islands every year as a result of illegal slavery practices.
April 7, 2015
After a yearlong investigation, and interviews with 40 current and former crewmembers of fishing vessels, the Associated Press exposed PT Pusaka Benjina Resources as a slave operation. The company's mostly Burmese employees told of being kicked, whipped with stingray tails and forced to drink unclean water. A number of them were imprisoned in a remote village in the Aru Islands called Benjina. Their catch was shipped as far afield as Europe and th
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