Ye, 4 October
The illegal killings of workers on fishing rafts have been going on for more than two and a half years since the coup in Mon State’s Ye Township, which has been declared martial law, said locals.
Workers on fishing rafts were subjected to torture and murder in the workplace, and brokers hired thugs to kill those who ran away from work.
According to Than Lwin Times’s investigation, at least 20 workers on fishing rafts have been badly abused and tortured this year, and at least ten have died without the perpetrators being identified.
An official of the social relief organization said that the bodies of the workers killed on the fishing rafts are often found in the Ye River, Asin River, and rubber plantations.
On October 3, the body of a 30-year-old man believed to be a fisherman who had been beaten to death near Ah Baw Village in Ye Township was found on a rubber farm.
The workers said workers on fishing rafts are often killed, but the police do not arrest and prosecute the perpetrators, so they lose legal protection.
Most of the fishermen who come to Mon State to work are from the Ayeyarwaddy, Bago, and Yangon regions, and they are tortured while working in the sea for months.
During the NLD government, the parliament discussed and approved drafting a law regarding the notorious fishing raft industry, but the fishermen were not given any legal protection at all by the military council.
News – Than Lwin Times
Photo: CJ