Kamal\u2014not his real name\u2014is a vocational-school graduate in maritime\nstudies who now spends his days working as a waiter at a restaurant.\nSince graduating a few months ago, he has had few options. He also says\nhe has had enough and is unwilling to work in his trained profession as\na seafarer.<\/p>\n
The teenager studied maritime affairs at a vocational secondary\nschool in Central Java. Over the three years of his education, he says\nhe spent tens of millions of rupiah. But misfortune struck in his final\nyear, shortly before graduation: Kamal became a victim of an alleged\nscam involving a broker or placement company running an internship\nprogramme, known as practical work experience (PKL), aboard fishing\nvessels.<\/p>\n
In the run-up to mid-2025, Kamal\u2019s school opened a compulsory\ninternship programme for Year 12 maritime students. The school did not\nwork directly with a ship-owning or operating company, but instead with\na placement agent, Abdul Rohman, also known as Abdul Rachman.<\/p>\n
The students were due to go to sea on fishing vessels departing from\nBenoa Port in Denpasar, Bali. Kamal was required to pay the school more\nthan Rp3.5 million to take part. He was later asked to pay a further Rp3\nmillion, allegedly to cover basic safety training and the production of\na seafarer\u2019s pocketbook.<\/p>\n
The school sent Kamal and 19 classmates to Bali by road, arriving on\n19 June. On arrival, they were met by Rohman, the broker.<\/p>\n
Under Rohman\u2019s direction, Kamal and the other students were taken to\nSouth Denpasar and housed in a temporary shelter. Kamal says the\naccommodation was deeply inadequate: they had to sleep close together in\na cramped room, without proper bedding.<\/p>\n
For food, they were given takeaway rice with an egg as a side dish\ntwice a day. Kamal says he was disappointed because the arrangements did\nnot match the fees they had paid.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was completely unacceptable. There were no beds or proper rooms.\nWe slept on the floor, with just a mat, and even that was completely\nunsuitable in that empty house,\u201d Kamal told detikX.<\/p>\n
At the shelter, the students began to suspect that something was\nwrong. They never received the promised basic safety training, despite\nhaving paid for it. Kamal and his classmates were also forbidden from\nwearing school clothing or other identifying items.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said we weren\u2019t allowed to wear our school uniform there. We\nwere told to remove the school name. For the internship, we were given\noveralls, but we weren\u2019t allowed to wear them because they had the\nschool name on them. He told us to say we were ordinary crew members,\nlike the others,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It later emerged that the students had allegedly been deceived and\ntrapped by the placement agent. They were threatened and forced to\nconceal their status as students. The plan was to place them on several\nfishing vessels as regular crew or deckhands, rather than as cadets or\nstudents. The broker was said to receive payment from the company for\narranging the placements.<\/p>\n
Although the students were eventually rescued and the internship\ncancelled, Kamal says he was traumatised and has no intention of working\nat sea after graduation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had enough. Never again. I feel like I\u2019ve been cheated,\u201d he\nsaid.<\/p>\n
His trauma was compounded by what he saw as the school\u2019s failure to\ntake responsibility. Kamal believes the school and teachers tried to\ncover up the case. Parents were not directly told why the students\u2019\ninternships had fallen through.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe school told the parents the internship had been cancelled\nbecause of bad weather and a shipwreck. That was how it was explained to\nthem,\u201d Kamal said.<\/p>\n
The case involving Kamal\u2019s year group was not the first of its kind.\nThe school had apparently worked with the broker for some time, and\nstudents in earlier cohorts had faced similar problems. They were afraid\nto report them.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudents from earlier years wanted to report that the internship\nconditions weren\u2019t as promised, but they didn\u2019t dare. This has happened\nbefore, but our cohort was the first to speak up. The earlier cohorts\nwere afraid,\u201d Kamal said.<\/p>\n
After the incident, the students received neither full refunds nor\ncompensation. Some were given about Rp3 million back\u2014roughly half of\nwhat they had paid\u2014while the rest of the money could not be accounted\nfor. Some victims were offered a replacement internship free of charge,\nbut others refused because of their trauma.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe school didn\u2019t compensate us. They said the Rp3 million for the\nbasic safety training and seafarer\u2019s book would be returned, but we\ndon\u2019t know what happened to the rest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, all the students received internship certificates at\ngraduation, even though not all of them had completed a replacement\nplacement. The events left most of them unwilling to work at sea.<\/p>\n
Kamal says most of his classmates have also rejected work aboard\nships. Since graduating a few months ago, they have chosen other\nprofessions or gone on to university. They believe work on Indonesian\nfishing vessels does not offer adequate pay for the risks involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pay is low and the work is hard. Safety is poor too. There are\nrisks on board; if you fall out with someone, it\u2019s frightening. You\u2019re\nafraid someone might throw you into the sea,\u201d Kamal said.<\/p>\n
Kamal and his classmates were not alone. The case, which occurred in\nmid-2025, allegedly involved students from at least four vocational\nschools in different regions. A total of 76 students are believed to\nhave been affected.<\/p>\n
According to documents and witness accounts, the case came to light\nafter crew members at Benoa Port reported to staff from Destructive\nFishing Watch (DFW) Indonesia that they had seen several young people\nwho appeared to be underage moving around the port.<\/p>\n
On Friday, 27 June 2025, the report was passed to the harbourmaster\nat Benoa Fishing Port in Bali. An investigation found that students who\nsaid they were undertaking internships were allegedly being forced to\nwork as crew members for PT Bandar Nelayan.<\/p>\n
At 1.13pm that day, PT Bandar Nelayan was found to have applied for\nsailing clearance for five vessels: KM Bandar Nelayan 310, 298, 588, 232\nand 502. A review of the applications showed that KM Bandar Nelayan 588\nhad six people suspected of being underage or students on board, while\nKM Bandar Nelayan 502 had three suspected students.<\/p>\n
At about 1.30pm, the harbourmaster inspected the five vessels. Nine\nstudents were found aboard KM Bandar Nelayan vessels 588 and 502.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe students and the school believed he was a representative of the\ncompany that owned the vessels in Benoa. It turned out he wasn\u2019t a\ncompany representative at all. He was a recruitment agent\u2014or, to put it\nbluntly, a broker,\u201d Fariz, a member of DFW Bali\u2019s staff, told\ndetikX.<\/p>\n
PT Bandar Nelayan\u2019s management told the harbourmaster it did not know\nthe nine people were still students. The company said they had been\nreferred by a crew recruitment agent who had described them as graduates\nor people undertaking internships.<\/p>\n
The harbourmaster asked the nine students to provide statements at\nthe Fishing Vessel Service Office and reported the findings to senior\nofficials for follow-up.<\/p>\n
Investigators found that the students came from several schools: 14\nfrom Indramayu, 11 from Balikpapan, 19 from Cilacap and 32 from\nSukabumi. They had paid varying amounts, from around Rp6 million to Rp10\nmillion each, allegedly for basic safety training. They said they had\nnot received any training.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we met them, the students were panicking and asking for help.\nThey were worried because things had seemed wrong from the start. First,\nthey had been handed over to someone who wasn\u2019t actually a company\nrepresentative. Second, their work status was wrong: they were supposed\nto be cadets learning, but had become deckhands,\u201d Fariz said.<\/p>\n
In statements to officials, the students said Rohman had forbidden\nthem from telling the company they were students and from wearing\nclothes identifying their school. They said Rohman selected students\nover 18 to work as crew for PT Bandar Nelayan, while the others were\nhoused in an unfit shelter with few facilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the students were taken from the shelter to the port to be\nplaced on vessels, they were briefed repeatedly: if anyone asked, they\nwere not to say they were students,\u201d Fariz said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe specialises in recruiting students for internships. He takes them\nfrom many schools,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
According to examination documents, Rohman admitted receiving\nstudents from the school and offering them work at PT Bandar Nelayan on\nthe basis that they were not students, or had already graduated. One\nexplanation given to the students was that they might be sent to South\nKorea.<\/p>\n
The harbourmaster then instructed that the students\u2019 status must no\nlonger be concealed. The company was warned not to employ students who\nwere still in school, even if they were old enough to work.<\/p>\n
Fariz said DFW had reported the case to Bali Regional Police. The\nreport was accepted and a raid was carried out. Rohman was briefly\ndetained and questioned, while the students were evacuated. However, he\nwas reportedly not prosecuted.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the case conference, it was decided that this was not a\nhuman-trafficking offence or a labour violation. In the end, the\nevidence was considered insufficient and the case was closed. We were\ntold that the Manpower Office had suspended the business licence of\nRohman\u2019s company, CV Sudiwa Utama,\u201d Fariz said.<\/p>\n
When asked about the case, Hartono, a representative of PT Bandar\nNelayan, said the company had never used brokers to recruit crew\nmembers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur company does not use brokers to recruit crew. We recruit crew in\naccordance with the applicable procedures and regulations,\u201d he told\ndetikX.<\/p>\n
Rohman, the alleged broker and a representative of CV Sudiwa Utama,\ntold detikX he was still arranging placements for crew on fishing\nvessels. He claimed, however, that he could no longer place internship\nstudents.<\/p>\n
Despite a violation of Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries\nRegulation No.\u00a04\/2026, some vocational schools still use brokers or\nplacement agents to arrange student internships. The government now\nrequires students undertaking sea-based practical training to contract\ndirectly with the ship-owning company, without an intermediary.<\/p>\n
DetikX spoke to education staff at several secondary schools in\ndifferent parts of Java\u2019s northern coastal region that offer maritime\ncourses. Almost all said they still used brokers.<\/p>\n
Egi\u2014not his real name\u2014a teacher at one school, said using a broker or\nthird-party agent had long been standard practice. Schools resorted to\nit because they said they struggled to supervise students placed outside\ntheir home area.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe usually work with a third party for student internships. It\u2019s\nbeen that way for a long time. We trust the third party to support\nstudents if there are problems with the vessel, the company and so on.\nThey act as the intermediary,\u201d Egi told detikX.<\/p>\n
But because schools did not contract directly with vessel owners, Egi\nsaid he found it difficult to monitor students on placements. He could\nnot ensure that they worked normal hours or in line with the rules,\narguing that work at sea required interns to be on call at all\ntimes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey follow the vessel\u2019s working hours, even though they\u2019re cadets,\u201d\nhe said.<\/p>\n
Egi acknowledged that the practice had caused problems. On one\nprevious occasion, a placement agent engaged by the school had neglected\nstudents.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve cut ties with a few agents before. We usually move the\nstudents to another placement company. The students said the agent\ndidn\u2019t really look after them or provide proper support,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Aan\u2014not his real name\u2014a teacher responsible for maritime studies at\nanother vocational school in Central Java, said his school was also\nforced to use brokers because many vessel-owning companies were\nreluctant to accept interns.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still use third parties. We usually pay the agent Rp1.7 million\nper student, and in some cases Rp2.1 million,\u201d Aan told detikX.<\/p>\n
The costs charged by placement companies were said to keep rising.\nDuring the process, agents would often demand additional payments from\nstudents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey monetise everything. If you haven\u2019t spent enough time at sea,\nyou have to pay more. If you need something, you have to pay again. It\nwould be easier if we could deal directly with the vessel owner.\nStrangely, companies seem afraid to work with schools. I\u2019ve approached\ncompanies and spoken to them, but they tell me to contact this\nparticular man\u2014the broker or agent\u2014instead,\u201d Aan said.<\/p>\n
Aan also said he could not guarantee that students received decent\nworking conditions or that regulations were followed. The school had no\ndirect communication with the vessel owners, while brokers were said to\nbe unwilling to provide sea-employment agreements.<\/p>\n
The communication problems also affected the length of internships.\nSome students ended up at sea for nearly a year because they were not\nbrought back on time.<\/p>\n
One document provided by an agent deliberately listed students as\ndeckhands or crew members, rather than cadets, which was their proper\nstatus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were eight students here who missed their national exams\nbecause they were away. They didn\u2019t graduate until the following year.\nIf the exams are in April, for example, the students might not return\nfrom sea until June,\u201d Aan said.<\/p>\n
Students also faced a culture of violence aboard fishing vessels,\nwhich was widespread and treated as normal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve told them that if they\u2019re working on a vessel and ask for a\nspoon but get a hammer, the hammer might be thrown at them. Violence may\nhappen on board, but it\u2019s treated as normal,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Aan said student internships were therefore risky. \u201cTo be honest,\nusing a third party carries a high risk. There was a student from\nanother school who went missing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He urged the government to take a more active role in coordinating\nthe recruitment of students for fishing-vessel placements.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo there won\u2019t be brokers any more. If students go aboard a vessel,\nit should be through a single channel. If there are lots of channels,\nI\u2019m sure there will be more violence and other problems. With one\nchannel, there should be fewer,\u201d he said.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/the-shadowy-network-of-brokers-exploiting-maritime-interns-1791809560", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }