"The five crew members were displaced in Port Gentil because the shipping company, SIFRIGAB Peche Gabon, did not keep its promise to send them back home or pay their salaries for five months," said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs` Director of Information and Media, PLE Priatna, after receiving a report from the RI Embassy in Dakar on Friday.
The five crew members are Kardani, Nur Rokhim, Daryono, and Sahuri from Brebes, C. Java, while Taufiq is from Indramayu, W. Java.
Quoting from the report, Priatna said that for the five months that they were working for the company they had to live on a fishing boat that was not being used at Port Gentil Harbor, without any food or beverage supplies from the company.
"However, the RI Embassy in Dakar kept supporting them with logistic supplies and other Indonesian citizens in Port Gentil were also providing information about their conditions to the embassy," he said.
Priatna noted that before the repatriation, the RI Embassy in Dakar tried to persuade SIFRIGAB Peche to carry out its responsibilities towards the Indonesian crew members, but the shipping company did not respond with good will to solve the problems of the five men and instead evaded the embassy`s requests.
He added that the embassy also diplomatically requested officials in Gabon to persuade the shipping company to carry out its responsibilities, but the results were not positive.
According to the latest information from Gabon, SIFRIGAB Peche is no longer in operation because its employees are on strike for not having received their salaries for three months.
Apart from the Indonesian crew members, others from Gabon, Senegal, Nigeria, and Cameroon have also been displaced at the Port Gentil Harbor.
Priatna noted that the repatriation process was also facilitated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration officials of Gabon, so the Indonesian crew members could be free of paying a fine for not having residence visas.
The crew members were repatriated from Gabon on March 14, via an Ethiopian Airlines flight at 2.25 pm.
Priatna quoted the testimony of one of the crew members, Taufiq from Indramayu in W. Java, who said that he was relieved to return to Indonesia and meet his family. Kardani, another crew member from Brebes in C. Java, said the bitter experience in Gabon would be a valuable lesson to him while looking for a job in the future.
(T.A060/KR-BSR/INE/A014)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
