ITF to organize conference on piracy, illegal fishing
Asia-Pacific regional conference The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) and its affiliated trade unions will hold the Asia-Pacific regional conference here next week to discuss sea crime in the region.Chairman of the ITF's Asia-Pacific Region Hanafi Rustandi said the conference that would last four days on Monday through Thursday was so important for Indonesia that relevant authorities, including the Indonesian Military and the police were also invited to attract the government's attention to sea crimes which have caused losses to the government and affect the livelihood of seafarers."Armed robberies have been on the rise in Indonesia's ports while piracy has been increasing on the Malacca straits, the South China Sea and Somalian waters in the past few years. Several Indonesian cargo and fishing vessels, including their crew members, have been hijacked and released after paying ransoms," he said.Indonesia would also raise issues on illegal fishing and infringement of the cabotage principle, which has exploited Indonesian seafarers, he said."The inter-island trade, or cabotage, is an extremely sensitive issue for most Asia-Pacific countries, there have been far too many incidents involving seafarers and ships because of relaxed legislation. The time has come to look at the issue to invigorate the role of ...
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