Lured by promises of good money working aboard a foreign fishing vessel, Akhmad left Indonesia and headed out to sea, enduring months of abuse and exploitation while being cut off from the world.
Indonesia is one of the top contributors of labour for the global fishing industry with several hundred thousand migrant workers, according to government figures.
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, who left Cirebon on Indonesia’s Java island in 2022, said he would get as little as four hours of rest a day while working on a Chinese-flagged tuna fishing vessel.
“There was no rest. [We] must keep working,” said Akhmad, who like many Indonesians goes by one name. “It was very tiring. My eyes hurt … If I was slightly sleepy, I was ordered to wake up and work.”
Crew members had little communication with the outside world and faced regular verbal and physical abuse on board, Akhmad said, recalling the captain once beating a colleague accused of stealing fish they had caught.