Overview

On 5 May 2020, a Korean citizen made public a video recording which was originally made by Indonesian workers. The video showed the crewmembers of a fishing vessel (“Vessel Crews”) throwing the body of a fellow Indonesian Vessel Crewmember into the ocean. The report that accompanied the video primarily described allegations of the abuse of Indonesian Vessels Crews aboard fishing vessels owned by a Chinese Company named Dalian Ocean Fishing, Co, also identified as Long Xin 629.[1] Amid the subsequent media circus, Indonesia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Retno Marsudi, officially addressed the story at a video conference held on 10 May 2020 and condemned the inhumane conditions which had seen Indonesian Vessel Crews being kept as virtual slaves, as well as the deaths of at least four of crewmembers. Retno further stated during his videoconference that 49 Indonesian Vessel Crewmembers aged from 19 to 24 years old had been forced to work an average working day of over 18 hours and that some of the Vessel Crewmembers had either not paid been at all or had not received the salary amounts that had been agreed beforehand.[2]