The Indonesian NGO, KKSP Foundation and Anti-Slavery International have long been concerned about the use of children on hundreds of rickety fishing platforms, known locally as jermals, in the seas off the northeast coast of Sumatra. Apart from a supply boat that comes every two weeks, there is no contact with the shore. Each jermal is likely to have three or four children on it who haul in and mend the nets as well as boil, dry and sort the fish. The children stay for a minimum of three months and are not free to leave. In this time the children obviously cannot see their families or go to school.

The work is also hazardous. An investigation was undertaken between November 1998 and July 1999 by KKSP, into child labour on fishing platforms in the Asahan and Labuhan Batu regions. This research found that three children had died while working on jermals during the period under investigation.

Children can fall or be carried off by large waves during storms and there are no life jackets on the platforms. The children suffer from fatigue because of the very long hours they work and interrupted sleep patterns. In such a state it is easy to lose concentration and fall from the platform or let a hand slip from the winch. Many injuries occur in this way and, as fresh water is not available for bathing wounds, cuts can take a long time to heal and easily turn septic.

The Indonesian Government has committed itself to protecting children's rights and has ratified both the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Labour Organisation Convention No.182 on the worst forms of child labour. The Department of Manpower in Indonesia wrote to Anti-Slavery on 4 August 1999 and informed us that earlier in 1999 two inspections had been carried out of all jermals. These inspections reportedly discovered 201 children (aged between 13 and 17) who were either returned to their families or put on a month-long training programme so that they could be re-employed in work which was not dangerous. While KKSP and Anti-Slavery welcomes the Indonesian Government's commitment to tackling the problem of child labour on jermals, we remain extremely concerned by the evidence we have received which shows that children continue to work on them.

A film crew visited Indonesia on behalf of the US-based International Labor Rights Fund in August 1999 and interviewed children who were working on these platforms. The logsheet and transcripts from these interviews have been made available to Anti-Slavery, they and the photos clearly show that children continue to be used on jermals.

The material included interviews with eight children who had worked on jermals for periods of time which ranged between one and a half months to 14 months and had begun working on jermals when they were between 13 and 15 years old. The children typically worked 12 hour days and the two who were specifically asked about the number of days they worked each week replied that they worked every day or almost every day. The boys generally came from large families and said their parents could not afford to send them to school and/or they had to work in order to help support their brothers and sisters.

Two of the children specifically said that they had asked to leave the platforms. One was told that he would have to wait until a replacement could be found and the other was told that if he left they would catch him and take him to another jermal.

Two others described being afraid of working on the jermals. They both said they were scared of the jermal collapsing and one of them described how the wooden slats had broken during a storm. They also mentioned that they were afraid of robbers. While none of the children had been seriously hurt, there were complaints of minor injuries such as bruising and losing nails.

An interview with one of the foreman who worked on the jermal confirmed many of the points made by the boys. The foreman himself had started work on the jermals when he was 13 and, like many of the children interviewed, said that he had wanted to finish school, but his parents were too poor. He too said he worried about robbers and did not like to see children on the platforms.

The foreman noted that the jermal was falling apart, but was too expensive to fix or rebuild. He estimated that 30 per cent of the boys who worked on the platforms were likely to be cheated by the owners. He did not think the Indonesian Government was serious about ending child labour on the platforms because only certain areas got inspected and even when children were caught, they would come back to work on the jermals at a later date. One of the boys interviewed explained that he had been told to leave the platform just before an inspection was to take place and that he was supposed to return to the jermal afterward. Furthermore, KKSP has said that in their experience, the children who are removed from platforms during inspections often return later, as the one month retraining programmes rarely lead to alternative work.

These issues are of grave concern given that the health and safety of children on the jermals are at serious risk. Some children are subject to coercion to stay on the platforms and may not receive any payment for their work, despite having worked on the platforms for 12 hours a day for several months. These abusive labour practices are clearly outlawed by international legislation, including ILO Convention 182. In view of this, KKSP and Anti-Slavery urge the Indonesian Government to ensure that regular, unannounced inspections of all jermals are carried out, including those which are not officially registered. And, that the owners of the jermals found to be operating them illegally or employing children should be prosecuted in compliance with the law.

KKSP and Anti-Slavery also call on the Indonesian Government to ensure that proper rehabilitation and training is provided for former jermal workers, thus reducing the number of children who return to them due to lack of viable alternatives. The Government should implement an action programme, in consultation with local NGOs, to ensure the complete elimination of child labour on jermals and that ILO Convention 182 is fully implemented.

KKSP and Anti-Slavery urge the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, in co-ordination with the ILO, to encourage the Indonesian Government to update the Working Group regarding progress made on this issue.