Brilio.net/en - In 2006, 26 year-old Zaw Myo Win, a Burmese national was lured into slavery by the promise of a well-paying job in Thailand. Fast forward nine years later, Zaw Myo Win is now known as Said after converting to Islam, has a Ambonese wife named Umi, and is blessed with a nine-month-old baby boy.
After enduring almost a year of beatings, inhumane treatment, and deprivation of wages, Said's life nowadays may seem like a dream.
Said's story is not an isolated case.
Ko Win now known as Zeth (left). Photo: Cory Rogers
39 year-old Ko Win who now goes by the name of Zeth shared a similar fate to Said. A victim of said forced labor, Zeth once made it all the way to the Burmese embassy in Jakarta, only to be turned away because they didn't believe he was of Burmese origin. Zeth eventually gave up and returned to Manado to start a new life.
In the case of Myo Zaw Aung, he fled his captors to Tual, a port in Maluku's Kei Islands. There he came across an Indonesian named Penne at a wet market. Myo Zaw Aung who has now adopted the Indonesian name Ako, was begging for food because he hasn't eaten for days. He took pity on me and asked me if I would like to go to Saumlaki [a port town on the nearby island of Yamdena] with him, said Ako. There were four others in the market with me, and he paid for our boat fares.There, Penne set Ako up with housing and a job where Ako worked as a seaweed farmer for a decade.
Left to their own means, Burmese escapees might find it difficult to survive after they have escaped their slavers. Now, the Indonesian government is kicking off a program that gives victims of trafficking (VOT) a second chance and also options: they can either go back to their homeland in Myanmar or repatriate and assimiliate with the Indonesian society where they're based in.
Three Burmese men at the IOM's care center. Photo: Corey Rogers
The International Organization of Migration (IOM) has set up a care center in Ambon on Maluku. Years removed from their initial fleeing, the IOM and the kindness of strangers such as Penne has become a saving grace for the unfortunate victims.
With the repatriation program in full swing, men such as these now face a difficult decision. Will they leave their new life to go back to their original families? It is estimated that there are around 30-40 Burmese nationals who hold a KTP (Indonesian identity card) in Saumlaki alone.
Although some are facing a ray of light at the end of the dark tunnel, the fight to curb slavery and human trafficking is nowhere near the end.
The Labor Rights Promotion Network, a Bangkok-based NGO, estimates there could be as many as 3,000 more trafficked men still fishing in the Malukus.
It remains to be seen whether more people like Said, Zeth, or Ako can find good graces and be liberated.
Via Cory Rogers on Mongabay