“'No rest': Indonesians overworked and abused on foreign fishing vessels”, 16 July 2026

… Indonesia is one of the top contributors of labour for the global fishing industry …

Many are recruited online and assigned to foreign-flagged ships without being properly informed about their rights, leaving them vulnerable to abuse, experts say.

Akhmad, 25 … told AFP he would get as little as four hours of rest a day while working on a Chinese-flagged tuna fishing vessel …

Crew members had little communication with the outside world and faced regular verbal and physical abuse on board …

… the captain once beating a colleague accused of stealing fish …

… the crew would also catch sharks … [by] finning …

Jamaludin, … who worked on a different Chinese-flagged vessel … was forced to follow the captain's orders to harvest shark fins despite knowing that it could be illegal.

… he once saw the captain ordering a fellow crew member to resume work despite an injury to one of his hands that exposed his flesh and bones …

Jamaludin's passport was withheld by the captain, … leaving him little choice but to see out the remainder of his contract.

Both Jamaludin and Akhmad were working on vessels operating off West Africa which unloaded fish in … Dakar …

The [Environmental Justice Foundation] organisation's CEO Steve Trent said that abuse and mismanagement were "systemic" across the Chinese distant-water fishing fleet, and to a lesser extent the Taiwanese one …

Migrant fishers easily find themselves in debt before beginning work, effectively trapped in bonded labour, said EJF's head of research, Callum Nolan …

… while Indonesia has regulations in place to protect prospective migrants from exploitation by crewing agencies, enforcement is generally weak …

The Indonesian government is working to improve oversight of recruitment and pre-departure orientation, said secretary-general of the migrant protection ministry, Dwiyono.

… the ministry's information campaigns aim at ensuring that "ship crew candidates choose official agents.... understand their rights and obligations, and do not depart through non-procedural channels" …