Child slaves in Indonesia

Jermals is a Chinese word for the run-down fishing platforms in the Strait of Malakka, a good fishing ground. The foremen prefer boys aged between 15 and 18 years to do the hard work. When asked, however, all of them claim to be older. For a monthly wage of 10 dollars the boys sweat away up to 16 hours a day, or rather a night. Most of them have never learned to swim, but particularly dangerous is the sorting of the haul: Poisonous sea-snakes are common – anyone who gets bitten only has  two hours to live. Jermals are jails without barbed wire fences.