Ministry Of Foreign Affairs Returns One Body And 14 Crew Members Long Xin 627 Tomorrow

JAKARTA - Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi stated that the government will repatriate the body of an Indonesian crew member (ABK) who worked on a Chinese-owned ship tomorrow, May 8. This repatriation was carried out because of the suspicion of work slavery that had been accepted by the crew members.

The body with the initials EP is the crew of the Long Xin 627 ship. Retno explained, on April 26, the Indonesian Embassy in Beijing received information from the crew that EP was ill.

"The person concerned was sick, namely shortness of breath and coughing up blood. At the request of the Indonesian Embassy, the agent (distributor) took him to the Busan Medical Center to be treated but eventually died in hospital due to pneumonia," Retno said in a virtual press conference on Thursday, May 7.

"The Indonesian Embassy continues to coordinate to facilitate the return of the late EP who is scheduled to return home on May 8, 2020," he continued.

In addition, Retno continued, the government will also bring home 14 crew members who work on a Long Xin 629 ship with EP tomorrow. Previously, they had been removed from the ship on humanitarian grounds.

"They were quarantined in a hotel in Busan for 14 days," he said.

On the same ship, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received information that 3 crew members had also died before EP. On March 26, the crew named AR was sick and was transferred from the Long Xin ship to the Tian Yu 8 ship to be taken to the port for treatment.

However, on the way on March 27th, AR died on board the Tian Yu. Another crew member decided to throw the body (bury it into the sea) on March 31 at 8:00 local time in Pacific Ocean waters.

The decision to dispose of the bodies was taken by the captain of the ship because the death was caused by an infectious disease. This also received the approval of the other crew members.

"The ship has notified the family and received a sea voyage approval letter dated March 3, 2020, the family agreed to receive death compensation," said Retno.

Before the EP and AR cases, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received information that there were 2 other Indonesian crew members who had previously died and were thrown into the sea in December 2019. All crew members who died were crew members of the Long Xin 260 ship with a total of four people.

For information, the public was shocked by the news from South Korean media MBC News which reported that an Indonesian citizen who was a crew member died on the Long Xin 629 ship belonging to China.

The cause of the death of the crew members on the fishing boat belonging to China was due to slavery. The crew members of the Indonesian ship are suspected of being obliged to work which is not in accordance with human rights.

The case that was reported by the MBC television station was widely known by the Indonesian public, after a Youtuber named Jang Hansol who was fluent in Indonesian, on the Korean Reomit account, explained the chronology of the news.

After watching the MBC news broadcast, Hansol stated that workers, including the Indonesian crew members, had exploited them. They, said Hansol, were required to work 18 hours per day.

Then, they only get six hours to rest as well as hours to eat. During their time on the ship, the crew members did not get proper drinking water. They can only drink filtered seawater.

The passports of the crew members were confiscated, so they could not escape. Not only that, the crew who worked at sea for 13 months only received a salary of 140 thousand won or around IDR 1.7 million.

As a result, three crew members died due to illness in the ship in the middle of the ocean. The bodies of the three crew members were not taken to the mainland, but were transported to the open seas. Another body died in hospital.

The crew's corpse was put in a bag, then the crew of the other ships carried out similar activities such as a funeral ceremony, then the bodies were carried and floated out to sea.