About 500 Myanmar workers have yet to receive their salaries more than a year after being freed from slave-like conditions on Indonesian and Thai fishing vessels, according to the Myanmar Journalists Network in Yangon. The fishermen organised a press conference recounting their bitter experiences. They said they had not received their wages for more than a year after the Myanmar government brought them home, promising to arrange for the payment of their salaries and sue the perpetrators. “Khin Aung Win from the embassy told us to sign documents and asked how much we were owed, the names of our fishing boats, how much experience we had and how long we worked,” said Hlaing Min. “Khin Aung Win said we would be paid within two to six months, encouraging us to return home by keeping ourselves calm. He also said jobs would be arranged for us.” After the new government took office, copies of the letter were sent to the President’s Office, various ministries and Parliament, but there had been no response, said the fishermen. They said they were forced to work like slaves on Indonesian fishing vessels, some for as long as 13 years. Reporters from the AP news agency, including Myanmar journalist Esther Htusan, won Pultizer Prize for public service journalism after reporting on fishermen from different countries, including Myanmar, working on Thai fishing vessels around the eastern Indonesian island Benjina in 2015.
2016, Eleven Myanmar