Dozens of Indonesian fishermen who spent months stranded in Cape Town’s harbor, sleeping in cramped and suffocating quarters, have been taken ashore to a repatriation center after being stuck at sea for years without pay.
The group of 75 fishermen tell of slavery-like working conditions aboard seven Taiwanese-owned vessels — an ordeal that only grew worse when South African authorities impounded their trawlers for illegal fishing.
The crew spent three months stranded in Cape Town’s Table Bay, sleeping crowded together in dirty, airless quarters that reeked of diesel, until they were moved to a repatriation center in Johannesburg on Saturday.
The captain has been arrested, but the men lacked the legal papers to go ashore, and had been living like prisoners on the trawlers, dependent on the compassion of locals for food.
Some of the men say they were recruited by agents in Jakarta with promises of earning up to US$200 a day fishing tuna. However, once on board they were forced to work round-the-clock with little food and no pay.
“You can start at 2 o’clock in the morning and work all the way to 10 at night. And then 2 o’clock in the morning you start again,” one dejected worker said.
Many of the fishermen did not want to give their names for fear of repercussions from the recruitment agents back home, who lived near their families.
After local media began covering the men’s story, immigration officials took them ashore, said Miriam Augustus, who had been providing them with food and water.
“I asked the policeman why they are moving the fishermen,” Augustus said. “He said: ‘This is what happens when you go to newspapers and say bad things about the country.’”
South Africa’s fisheries department did not respond to requests for information on the men.
PENNILESS
The men said despite their horror story, they are determined to wait for payment, saying they cannot afford to go back home penniless.
“I have a wife and three children at home,” one man said. “After all this time how can I return without even one cent to my name?”
A 44-year-old man said he had worked on various vessels for 37 months without pay, often transferred to other boats when his contract expired.
The men also claim that at times they were ordered to repaint the name of their vessel at least five times a day, in an attempt to evade fishing authorities.
Tuna was not the only fish caught during their lengthy stay at sea. Other catch included swordfish, dolphins and sharks, in contravention of local marine laws.
A fishing log from one boat showed a catch of 70 tonnes.
International Transport Workers’ Federation ship inspector Cassiem Augustus said the trawlers were like “floating shanties.”
‘HUMAN TRAFFICKING’
“This is a blatant case of abuse and human trafficking,” he said. “They have been abandoned by their agents and no one knows who the owners of these vessels are.”
He said inside the vessel there was one toilet for 12 men and that they had been drinking out of a tap used to pump oil one day and water the next.
“The conditions were inhumane. None of these men have been paid a cent, despite working 20 hour days. It’s slavery at sea,” Augustus said.
Maritime lawyer Alan Goldberg, who has applied for the vessels to be auctioned on behalf of the crew, suspect that the trawlers were owned by fishing cartels.
“These tales of abuse are the ordinary course of business in the longline fishing industry,” he said.
He said he doubted that the run-down fiberglass boats would fetch a high price.
FLYBY: The object, appears to be traveling more than 60 kilometers per second, meaning it is not bound by the sun’s orbit, astronomers studying 3I/Atlas said Astronomers on Wednesday confirmed the discovery of an interstellar object racing through the solar system — only the third-ever spotted, although scientists suspect many more might slip past unnoticed. The visitor from the stars, designated 3I/Atlas, is likely the largest yet detected, and has been classified as a comet, or cosmic snowball. “It looks kind of fuzzy,” said Peter Veres, an astronomer with the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center, which was responsible for the official confirmation. “It seems that there is some gas around it, and I think one or two telescopes reported a very short tail.” Originally known as A11pl3Z before
US President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday accused Harvard University of violating the civil rights of its Jewish and Israeli students, and threatened to cut off all federal funding if the university does not take urgent action. Harvard has been at the forefront of Trump’s campaign against top US universities after it defied his calls to submit to oversight of its curriculum, staffing, student recruitment and “viewpoint diversity.” Trump and his allies claim that Harvard and other prestigious universities are unaccountable bastions of liberal, anti-conservative bias and anti-Semitism. In a letter sent to the president of Harvard, a federal task
‘CONTINUE TO SERVE’: The 90-year-old Dalai Lama said he hoped to be able to continue serving ‘sentient beings and the Buddha Dharma’ for decades to come The Dalai Lama yesterday said he dreamed of living for decades more, as the Buddhist spiritual leader prayed with thousands of exiled Tibetans on the eve of his 90th birthday. Thumping drums and deep horns reverberated from the Indian hilltop temple, as a chanting chorus of red-robed monks and nuns offered long-life prayers for Tenzin Gyatso, who followers believe is the 14th reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. Looking in good health, dressed in traditional maroon monk robes and a flowing yellow wrap, he led prayers — days after confirming that the 600-year-old Tibetan Buddhist institution would continue after his death. Many exiled Tibetans
Hundreds of protesters marched through the Mexican capital on Friday denouncing gentrification caused by foreigners, with some vandalizing businesses and shouting “gringos out!” The demonstration in the capital’s central area turned violent when hooded individuals smashed windows, damaged restaurant furniture and looted a clothing store. Mexico City Government Secretary Cesar Cravioto said 15 businesses and public facilities were damaged in what he called “xenophobic expressions” similar to what Mexican migrants have suffered in other countries. “We are a city of open arms... there are always ways to negotiate, to sit at the table,” Cravioto told Milenio television. Neighborhoods like Roma-Condesa
RSS