Indonesia improves its ministerial coordination to better protect fishers working onboard fishing vessels

JAKARTA, Indonesia (ILO News) - The Ministry of Manpower (MoM) and the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) signed two collaboration agreements on fair recruitment and placement mechanism of fishers working onboard Indonesian fishing vessels and on labour inspection and occupational safety and health on board fishing vessels last December in Jakarta. These two agreements were signed with support from the ILO through its Ship to Shore Rights Southeast Asia Programme.

© ILO

The first agreement is developed between the Directorate General of Captured Fishing of MMAF and the Directorate General of Placement of Workers and Expansion of Employment Opportunity of MoM. The agreement focuses on strengthening the recruitment mechanism of Indonesian fishers working onboard Indonesian fishing vessels, socialization and education for recruitment management, data sharing on recruitment and placement of fishers as well as disseminating recruitment information of fishers.

The second agreement is between the Directorate General of Capture Fishing of MMAF and the Directorate General of Labour Inspection and Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) of MoM. The agreement underscores the importance of joint labour inspection and OSH onboard fishing vessels.  

The signing ceremony was witnessed by Yassierli, Minister of Manpower of the Republic of Indonesia, who highly valued the collaboration across ministries under the new administration. From MoM, these agreements were signed by Haryanto, Director General of the Directorate General of Placement of Workers and Expansion of Employment Opportunity and Fahrurozi, Acting Director General of the Directorate General of Labour Inspection and OSH; while the MMAF was represented by Lotharia Latif, Director General of Capture Fishing.

The ILO, through its Ship to Shore Programme, had facilitated a series of meetings between the two Ministries and supported the deliberation of the drafts of the two collaborative agreements for the last seven months. We are pleased that the two agreements have been finalized and signed as means to realize decent work in the Indonesian fishing sector.

Simrin Singh, Country Director of the ILO in Indonesia and Timor-Leste 

Simrin Singh, Country Director of the ILO in Indonesia and Timor-Leste, appraised the joint initiative taken by these two ministries. She also highlighted the commitment of the ILO in providing technical support to Indonesia in ensuring the realization of decent work in the fishing sector.

“The ILO, through its Ship to Shore Programme, had facilitated a series of meetings between the two Ministries and supported the deliberation of the drafts of the two collaborative agreements for the last seven months. We are pleased that the two agreements have been finalized and signed as means to realize decent work in the Indonesian fishing sector,” she stated.

The Ship to Shore programme has been implemented in Southeast Asian region for four years since 2020 while in Indonesia, it started in 2021. The programme is a multi-country, multi-annual initiative of the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN), implemented by the ILO in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The programme will be extended for another four years started from January 2025, implemented by the ILO in collaboration with IOM and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).