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Indonesia makes arrests over scheme to smuggle in corpses from Chinese ships

The police arrested two officials from a recruiting agency on suspicion of trying to bring in undetected the corpses of three sailors who died on the 'Fu Yuan Yu 829', authorities in Indonesia’s Riau Islands said on Aug 14, 2020, in yet another case of Indonesians who perished aboard China-flagged ships. In addition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that another Indonesian sailor had died on a Chinese boat operating in Peruvian waters on Aug. 11. The four new deaths brings the reported number of Indonesian crew members who have died while aboard Chinese fishing boats to at least 16 since late last year. Some of those who died were treated harshly and made to work in strenuous conditions, according to Indonesian labor activists and officials. In the latest case, the bodies of the three sailors were moved from the 'Fu Yuan Yu 829' as it passed through waters off Batam, said Arie Dharmanto, the provincial police chief criminal investigator. The bodies were discovered on Aug 12. The ship did not dare dock, but instead contacted a recruiting agency to pick up the bodies. The agency had hired three local fishermen to pick up the bodies after promising to pay them hundreds of millions of rupiah. The pair of suspects in custody faced human trafficking charges, which can carry life sentences upon conviction.. The police identified the victims as Syaban, 22, and Musnan, 26, from Aceh province, and Dicky Arya Nugraha, 23, from Donggala, a regency in Central Sulawesi. The bodies were taken to a hospital for autopsies. Also on Aug 14, the Indonesian foreign office confirmed the death of an Indonesian crewman aboard the 'Long Xin 629' in waters off Peru. The ministry had received information about the death after a crew member reported it to the Indonesian fisheries workers’ union in South Korea. It has since contacted Chinese officials and the boat owner for details. The cause of death had not been determined. The ship was still sailing around the Peruvian waters . In April, Indonesian officials reported the deaths of four Indonesians who had served as crew on the 'Long Xin 629'. Three of them died sometime between December 2019 and March 2020 and their bodies were thrown into the sea. The fourth victim was transferred to another boat and died in a South Korean hospital. A South Korean television station showed video footage of one of the bodies being thrown overboard. In an interview, an Indonesian crew member said he and others were sometimes forced to work 30 straight hours while standing and were given only six hours to eat and sleep before resuming their duties.Police had arrested three suspects tied to those deaths. On July 8, the Riau Islands provincial police recovered a corpse on the 'Lu Huang Yuan Yu 117' after receiving a tip that an Indonesian sailor had been kept in cold storage aboard the vessel for about a week. Police investigations continued after naming six suspects including the captain and the Chinese natioonal Song Chanyun.