"Maritime Agency rescues 8 Indonesians from human trafficking in Korea"

The Indonesian Maritime Security Agency (Bakamla), in collaboration with the Korea Coast Guard (KCG) and the Indonesian Embassy (KBRI) in Seoul, rescued eight Indonesian crew members from suspected human trafficking in South Korean waters on Wednesday...

"AD, the family of one of the victims, a crew member assigned to a foreign vessel, had suspicions and submitted a report to Bakamla's Public Relations Division," Yuhanes explained.

When AD was contacted by the victim (CW), he reported several irregularities regarding his assignment on the vessel, which is known to be owned by a South Korean company (YMI).

Yuhanes mentioned that one of the suspicions arose when the workers were ordered to load and unload cargo at sea on another vessel. The act was detected and stopped by the South Korean Navy, which firmly warned against any recurrence.

Aware of the unlawful action, Yuhanes said that all Indonesian crew members refused and demanded to be repatriated to Indonesia...

"In a short time, we established coordination with the Korea Coast Guard to rescue the eight Indonesian crew members," Yuhanes remarked...

All eight Indonesian crew members are now safe and have been repatriated to Indonesia...

[The Resource Centre was not able to contact YMI to invite a response to the allegations as it could not identify the company online; if a response is received in future this page will be updated accordingly.]