'We Helped Out of Solidarity': Indonesian Fishermen Come to Aid of Boat Migrants

When Myusup Mansur, a fisherman from the small island village of Pusung, first caught a glimpse of the boat in the distance in waters off North Sumatra, it was dark and impossible for him to make out the hundreds of migrants huddled on the deck.
It was only when two other fishermen pulled up and told him what they had seen that he realised what was happening: scores of people were jumping from the boat into the sea.
They headed in the direction of the boat while radioing in for rescue reinforcement on the way.“We helped them because they needed help,” said 38-year-old, Mansur,“What is more human than that?”
Some 677 migrants were brought ashore late last Thursday by Mansur and his fellow fishermen. While governments around the region have refused to receive what is thought to be thousands of migrants from Burma and Bangladesh stranded and starving in the Andaman Sea, the fishermen of Indonesia have stepped up to fill the humanitarian void.