Wednesday 1 July 2015

The incredible story of Burmese fisherman forced to work the seas for DECADES

Myanmar fisherman Myint Naing goes home after 22 years of slavery in Indonesia

Burmese slave Myint Naing (top right) left home to work in Thailand in 1993 - but fell in to forced labour on fishing boats and ended up being taken to the Indonesian island of Tual.
Myint spent weeks at a time on the open ocean, living only on rice and the parts of the catch no one else would eat. During the busiest times, the men worked up to 24 hours a day, hoisting heavy nets rippling with fish. They were forced to drink foul-tasting boiled sea water. Years later, he escaped a vessel by swimming to shore and after living in a bamboo shack for years, he eventually found a way to return home. He broke down in tears (left and bottom right) as he saw his beloved mother and little sister for the first time in more than two decades. By the time he had returned as a 40-year-old man, he had been enslaved or in hiding for more than half his life.

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