(9 May 2015) A group of Myanmar fishermen arrived in their home country on Saturday after years of forced labour on fishing vessels in Indonesia.
The men were released following an AP investigative report on fishing slavery.
The first group of fishermen who arrived included 15 fishermen who had been lured by human traffickers to work on fishing boats in Indonesian waters.
It is unknown when they might be reunited with their families.
Daw Than Than Win, the mother of Win Ko Naing who was kept on an island in Indonesia, said she thought her son was dead.
The number of foreign fishermen stranded on remote eastern Indonesian islands has spiralled to 4,000, including some revealed in an Associated Press investigation to have been enslaved.
The AP reported in March that slaves - some of them beaten and locked in cages - are forced to fish, and their catch ends up in the supply chains of US supermarkets and restaurants.
Many of the stranded are men from Myanmar who went to neighbouring Thailand in search for work.
They were kept in Thai fishing vessels and forced to work long hours without rest or proper meals.
They were taken by boat to Indonesia, which has some of the world's richest fishing grounds.
Others left behind are Cambodian and a few from the poorer parts of Thailand.
The Indonesian government has pledged to take legal measures to address the issue.
Last June, the US downgraded Thailand to its lowest category - Tier 3 - in an annual assessment of how governments handle human trafficking.
Thailand promised action to get off the blacklist, but its reputation suffered more following recent revelations by the AP that some Thai fishing vessels kept men from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos on board as forced labour or slaves.
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