Indonesian fishermen abandoned off West Africa for months face a desperate choice: return home penniless or stay on their docked vessel.
JAKARTA: Abandoned for months on their fishing boat off West Africa, Indonesian sailor Surono and his shipmates face a desperate dilemma. They can return home without almost a year’s wages or remain stranded on the docked vessel.
“My family cries because I can’t get any money. My children and wife need money to eat,” Surono, 47, told AFP from the abandoned ship in Cape Verde. “We want to go home, but if we go home without money, then what?”
He is among a growing number of migrant workers abandoned by shipowners who flout their obligations. Crews are often deserted without receiving the salaries owed to them.
The engine technician flew from Indonesia to Namibia in March 2025 to work onboard the Portuguese-flagged tuna longliner, Novo Ruivo. The owner left with the crew’s passports and without paying their wages when they docked at Mindelo in Cape Verde last September.
Surono said his salary was US$1,200 (RM4,721) a month. With five months stranded in Mindelo’s Porto Grande, he is now owed US$13,200.
His family in Tegal, Central Java, has struggled without this income. It is more than eight times the local minimum wage.
“This is really hard. To survive, I have to go into debt,” his wife, Kiki Andriani, 38, told AFP through tears. “I want my husband to come home, but if he does without his salary, then a whole year’s work would be for nothing.”
Reported abandonment cases reached record levels in 2025. Around 6,200 seafarers were left stranded across 410 ships, according to figures released by the International Transport Workers’ Federation last month.
Surono contacted the ITF, who reported the Novo Ruivo abandoned to authorities. They also helped contact the Indonesian embassy in Dakar, Senegal.
“We offered them repatriation from day one, but they refused because they are afraid of not getting the money,” said Gonzalo Galan, the ITF inspector handling the case.
The crew’s last resort is getting a court order to seize and sell the boat. This would pay off the owner’s debts, an option the ITF is exploring with its legal team.
The designated shipowner, Spaniard Javier Martinez, told AFP he does not have the money but is trying to solve the problem. “They have not been abandoned. They have everything on the boat — electricity, fresh water and food,” he said.
