Papua New Guinean authorities have detained a foreign vessel allegedly crewed by forced labourers on the international border with Australia in the Torres Strait.
PNG prime minister Peter O’Neill confirmed the seizure and has warned there are probably others in the region’s waters.
The Blissful Reefer was intercepted in Daru, the regional capital of Western Province, just across the Torres Strait border.
“Our personnel rescued eight people who had been enslaved on the vessel, and held the remaining 19 crew for questioning,” Mr O’Neill said.
“There are other vessels of interest in the area and we are following lines of inquiry into their activities.”
“The Government was alerted by our partners of the possibility that vessels were in Papua New Guinea waters with forced labor on board,” the Prime Minister said.
Mr O’Neill says the PNG defence personnel boarded the boat last Monday.
“The people rescued from the vessel are of Cambodian and Myanmar nationality and are now being accommodated in a safe location until arrangements can be made for them to return them to their homes,” he said.
“The Blissful Reefer and its 19 crew, including the captain, are being brought to Port Moresby for further processing.”
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says it is assisting PNG authorities.
“We can confirm six Cambodian VOTs [victims of trafficking] and two from Myanmar in one vessel,” the IOM’s project manager Paul Dillon told the The Phnom Penh Post.
“All have now moved to an IOM transit centre in Port Moresby.”
“We (IOM) are assisting their efforts by providing translation services and support to the VOTs.”
The vessel is listed by shipping websites as an 80-metre long, Honduran-flagged refrigeration ship built in the Netherlands in 1962.
The departments of Immigration and Border Force and Fisheries have been contacted for a response by SBS.
