GIFF JOHNSON
Community complaints about a large group of fishermen living in an apartment building in the Batkan area of Majuro led to law enforcement raiding the building and removing the men from the location last week, first to the MIPD Uliga jail and later to the former Covid quarantine facilities at CMI’s Arrak Campus.
RMI Attorney General Bernard Adiniwin confirmed there are 34 fishermen in the group — 27 citizens from Indonesia and seven citizens from Kiribati.
But, he said, the “34 fishermen are not detained but are under the care and protection of the government.”
Nevertheless, there is a 24/7 police presence at the CMI Arrak facility where the 34 are being housed and fed. As of Wednesday, over a week after the raid on the apartment at Batkan, the men remain at the CMI Arrak area.
There were concerns about the conditions in which the fishermen were living, which included an apparent lack of toilets, according to reports to the Journal. Men using the lagoon side beach as a bathroom apparently fueled complaints of nearby residents that led to law enforcement intervention.
It is believed that the fishermen were being housed in the crowded conditions temporarily while awaiting assignment to fishing vessels or their repatriation home.
The lack of authorized entry for the 34 men to leave the MIFV dock area for an apartment “is one of the reasons” for the RMI law enforcement action, Adiniwin said.
He said he couldn’t provide additional details since “law enforcement continues to investigate this matter.”