Fishermen's Rights Need Protection, says Missionary

A missionary working with Taiwanese fishermen is making a series of visits to seamen's centres across Indonesia to forge stronger links across national boundaries.

Speaking at the global missionary gathering in Indonesia last month, Rev Zaidarzhauva said that the work of helping fishermen has to cross national boundaries, because many of the problems that fishermen face happen in foreign waters.

He then visited to Bali and Jakarta, where he had an appointment with a maritime organisation to talk about fishing problems in Indonesia.

Taiwanese fishermen often fish in Indonesian waters. There are rules about where fishermen from each country may fish legally and there are harsh penalties for fishermen who stray out of their designated area.

Sometimes boats cross the boundaries unintentionally, sometimes the captains of the ships take a risk, and there have been cases of pirates chasing fishing boats across the boundaries.

Acccording to the Council for World Mission, the fines bring in good money for the Indonesian authorities, while the captains and crews are at risk of being detained. Most crew members are eventually set free.

Zaidarzhauva's went on to Irian Jaya where he met with the local church, Chinese churches and with the nearest seamen's centres. He also met local people in Bitung.

"We want to have strong links with these people," he said. "We need to share information on detainees and how we can best help them."

Until now there has been no special link between the seamen's centres in Indonesia and Taiwan. "But we must have as much contact as we can with seamen's centres in other countries," he said.





[Source: Council for World Mission]