AP investigation prompts emergency rescue of 300 plus slaves
The Associated Press - By By ROBIN McDOWELL and MARGIE MASON
BENJINA, Indonesia (AP) — At first the men filtered in, by twos and threes, hearing whispers of a possible rescue.
Then, as the news rippled around the island, hundreds of weathered former and current slaves streamed out, many with long, greasy hair and tattoos. They came from trawlers and villages, even out of the jungle, running toward what they had only dreamed of for years: Freedom.
"I will go see my parents. They haven't heard from me, and I haven't heard from them since I left," said Win Win Ko, 42, who's been gone from Myanmar for four years. His smile revealed a mouthful of missing teeth, kicked out by the Thai captain on his fishing boat with military boots, he said, because Win was not moving fish fast enough from the deck to the hold below.
The Burmese men were among hundreds of migrant workers revealed in an Associated Press investigation to have been lured or tricked into leaving their countries to go to Thailand, where they were put on boats and brought to Indonesia. From there, they were forced to catch seafood that was shipped back to Thailand and exported to consumers around the world, including the United States.
In response to the AP's findings, Indonesian officials visited the island village of Benjina on Friday and offered immediate evacuation after finding brutal conditions, down to an "enforcer" paid to beat men up.
The officials first gave the invitation for protection just to a small group of men who talked openly about their abuse. But then Asep Burhanuddin, director general of Indonesia's Marine Resources and Fisheries Surveillance, said everybody was welcome, including those hiding in the forest.
"They can all come," he said. "We don't want to leave a single person behind."
http://start.toshiba.com/news/read/article/the_associated_press-ap_investigation_prompts_emergency_rescue_of_300_p-ap
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