8 men sentenced to 3 years in jail for enslaving fishermen

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

8 men sentenced to 3 years in jail for enslaving fishermen

Daniel Leonard, Associated Press

Updated 9:05 pm, Thursday, March 10, 2016


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Photo: Dita Alangkara, AP

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FILE - In this Friday, April 3, 2015 file photo, Burmese fishermen raise their hands as they are asked who among them wants to go home at the compound of Pusaka Benjina Resources fishing company in Benjina, Aru Islands, Indonesia.

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AMBON, Indonesia (AP) — Five Thai fishing boat captains and three Indonesians were sentenced Thursday to three years in jail for human trafficking in connection with slavery in the seafood industry.

The suspects were arrested in the remote island village of Benjina last May after the abuse was revealed by The Associated Press in a report two months earlier. The men were tried separately in Tual, an island in southeastern Maluku province, about 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) east of Jakarta.

The three-judge panel also ordered the defendants to pay fines of about $12,250 each or serve two more months in jail. In addition, the Thai captains — Youngyut Nitiwongchaeron, Boonsom Jaika, Surachai Maneephong, Hatsaphon Phaetjakreng and Somchit Korraneesuk — have to pay a total of $67,800 in compensation to their crew members.

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The AP investigation found that thousands of poor migrant fishermen, mostly from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, were recruited in Thailand and brought to Indonesia using fake travel documents where they were subjected to brutal labor abuses. Some had been enslaved for years or decades. The AP found some men locked in a cage and saw others calling out for help over the railing of their trawler. A company graveyard with dozens of bodies buried under fake names was also located. The Indonesian government carried out a dramatic rescue in Benjina in April, just over a week after the report ran.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/8-men-sentenced-to-3-years-in-jail-for-enslaving-6882110.php

[notadmblnd]

1. Isn't Indonesia one of the countries mentioned in the TPP?

Now Americans are expected to compete with slave labor?

[elljay]

3. Indonesia is not

but Brunei is. It is run by a horrible family:

http://nypost.com/2014/05/10/inside-the-wacky-sex-obsessed-world-of-brunei/

Wonder why we think it is beneficial to have a trade agreement with these SOBs. Perhaps something to do with Brunei's oil resources? Oil washes away all sins to our corporate masters.

[Bradical79]

2. Wow. That's some really light sentencing for enslavement and torture -nt