News
Myanmar Fisherman Home After 22 Years as a Slave
By Margie Mason
Associated Press
fishermen back home if they
agreed to work. So, eight
It’s a brutal trade that has
operated for decades, with
companies relying on slaves to
supply fish to the United States,
Europe and Japan
years after he first arrived
in Indonesia, he returned to
the sea.
But the conditions were
just as appalling as the first
time, and the money still
didn’t come. If anything,
the slave trade was getting
worse. To meet growing
demand, brokers some-
times even drugged and kid-
napped migrant workers to
get them on board.
After nine months on the
water, Myint’s captain told
the crew he was abandoning
them to go back to Thailand
alone. Furious and desper-
ate, the Burmese slave once
again pleaded to go home.
That, he said, was when he
was chained to the boat.
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TUAL, Indonesia (AP)
— All he did was ask to go
home.
The last time the Burmese
slave made the same re-
quest, he was beaten almost
to death. But after being
gone eight years and forced
to work on a boat in faraway
Indonesia, Myint Naing was
willing to risk everything to
see his mother again.
So he threw himself on the
ground and begged for free-
dom. Instead, the captain
vowed to kill him for trying
to jump ship, and chained
him for three days without
food or water.
He was afraid he would
disappear. And that his
mother would have no idea
where to look.
Myint is one of more than
800 current and former
slaves rescued or repatriated
after a year-long Associat-
ed Press investigation into
pervasive labor abuses in
Southeast Asia’s fishing in-
In 2001, he heard one
captain was offering to take
was desperate for money. So
his mother finally relented.
When the agent returned, he
hustled his new recruits to
grab their bags immediately.
Myint’s mother wasn’t
home. He never got to say
goodbye.
A month later, Myint
found himself at sea. Af-
ter 15 days, his boat final-
ly docked on the remote
Indonesian island of Tual,
surrounded by one of the
world’s richest fishing
grounds. The Thai captain
shouted that everyone on
board now belonged to him:
“You Burmese are never go-
ing home. You were sold,
and no one is ever coming
to rescue you.”
Myint spent weeks at a
time on the open ocean,
living only on rice and the
parts of the catch no one else
would eat. As Thailand’s
seafood export industry has
expanded, overfishing has
forced trawlers farther into
foreign waters. So migrants
are now trapped for months,
or even years, aboard float-
ing prisons.
In this May 16, 2015 photo, former slave fisherman
Myint Naing, center, speaks with relatives and
neighbors in Mon State, Myanmar after being gone
22 years. Myint, 40, is among hundreds of former
slave fishermen who returned to Myanmar following
an Associated Press investigation into the use of
forced labor in Southeast Asia’s seafood industry.
dustry.
Thailand’s booming sea-
food business alone runs
on an estimated 200,000
migrant workers, many of
them forced onto boats after
being tricked, kidnapped or
sold. It’s a brutal trade that
has operated for decades,
with companies relying on
slaves to supply fish to the
United States, Europe and
Japan — on dinner tables
and in cat food bowls.
Myint, his family and his
friends recounted his story
to AP, which also followed
parts of his journey. It is
strikingly similar to ac-
counts given by many of the
more than 330 current and
former slaves from Myan-
mar, Cambodia, Laos and
Thailand interviewed in per-
son or in writing by AP.
In 1993, a broker visited
Myint’s village in southern
Myanmar with promises
of jobs for young men in
Thailand. Myint was only
18 years old, with no travel
experience, but his family
During the busiest times,
the men worked up to 24
hours a day. There was no
medicine, and they were
forced to drink boiled sea
water. Anyone who took a
break or fell ill was hit by
the captain. Fishermen said
that workers on some boats
were killed if they slowed
down, while others simply
flung themselves overboard.
Myint was paid only $10
a month, and sometimes not
at all. By 1996, after three
years, he had had enough:
He asked for the first time to
go home.
His request was answered
by a helmet cracking his
skull.
He ran away. An Indone-
sian family took mercy on
Myint until he healed, and
then offered him food and
shelter for work on their
farm. For five years, he
lived this simple life. But
he couldn’t forget his rela-
tives in Myanmar, otherwise
known as Burma, or the
friends he left behind on the
boat.
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participants for their participation in the 2015 Juneteenth Festival and Parade.
A special thank you to the following sponsors.
Without you this event would not be possible.
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Cultural Coalition
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The Juneteenth Oregon committee is in the planning stage for next year’s event and we are seeking comments
on this years’ event, Volunteers to help with the planning, the festival site, entertainment and parade as well as
Vendors. We invite you to come as we celebrate the history of Juneteenth in 2016.
July 8, 2015 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 9