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| Image: Flickr User - Jen Joaquin |
By Prashanth Parameswaran
Jakarta’s aggressive crackdown shows few signs of stopping in 2016.
Indonesia may sink up to 57 seized vessels soon as the country continues its aggressive crackdown on illegal fishing, local media outlets reported on January 7.
As I’ve written previously, Indonesia under President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has launched a tough crackdown on illegal fishing in Indonesian waters, which he says causes the country to suffer annual losses of over $20 billion (See: “Explaining Indonesia’s ‘Sink the Vessels’ Policy Under Jokowi”).
That has resulted in a series of highly public sinking of boats from neighboring countries through 2015 – part of what Jokowi has described as a “shock therapy” approach in spite of concerns among some of Indonesia’s neighbors. According to the latest data from the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, since October 2014, Indonesia has seized 157 vessels and sunk 121 of them, with most of them coming from Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia. Just one Chinese vessel was also sunk after some hesitancy, as I noted in a previous piece (See: “Indonesia Sinks First Vessel from China Under Jokowi”).
Read the full story at The Diplomat