Correspondence
August 21, 2023
1 inquiry
0 replies
Email sent to the contact address for Rongcheng Rongyuan Fishery Co. Ltd.
The email said: "My name is Ian Urbina. I am the director of The Outlaw Ocean Project, a journalism organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States, and I'm working on a magazine story about labor issues and other crimes at sea on board vessels of the Chinese fishing fleet. We are reaching out to request a reply from the captain of the Lu Rong Yuan Yu 978, which we mention in the story, to our statements below.
Our reporting, including interviews with individuals in Montevideo and a review of original documents pertaining to the below medical case, has shown the following:
- Rafly Maulana Sadad, while working on the Lu Rong Yuan Yu 978, fell down a flight of stairs and broke his back. He immediately went back to work pulling nets, then fainted, and woke up in bed.
- The captain refused to take him to shore, and he spent the next five months on the ship, his condition worsening. Sadad’s friends helped him to eat and bathe, but he was disoriented, and often lay in a pool of his own urine.
- In August, 2021, the captain dropped Sadad off in Montevideo, and he spent ten days in the hospital, before being flown home. We need an official response in writing from the captain of the Lu Rong Yuan Yu 978 on the above statements by the end of the business day on Monday, August 28."
Future correspondence will be added here as this conversation continues.