Jakarta (Antara Bali) - The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry and the Foreign Ministry worked together to repatriate at least 293 Indonesian fishermen last year.
"The Directorate General of Fishery and Maritime Resources and Foreign Ministry joined hands to repatriate at least 293 traditional fishermen from our country who had been arrested in foreign waters," Director General of Fishery and Maritime Resources Syahrin Abdurrahman said here on Tuesday.
Of the 293 fishermen, he noted, at least 137 were detained in Malaysia, while 115 had been jailed in Australia and 20 were arrested in Palau Republic. Apart from them, at least seven people were detained in Papua New Guinea and 14 others had been jailed in East Timor.
The ministry has also launched a protection program for traditional fishermen, under which a Fishery Ministry vessel will monitor the movement of local fishermen so they do not enter foreign waters by mistake, Syahrin pointed out.
The Directorate General has also set itself a target of stopping illegal fishing in Indonesia this year. In order to achieve the goal, the ministry has developed six strategies.
Two of them involve improved communication and cooperation among maritime law enforcers and increased monitoring of Indonesian waters at national, regional and international levels, Syahrin stated.
"We have made several efforts to eliminate illegal fishing at the transnational level through diplomatic action and international cooperation," he continued. (*/M038)
