INDONESIAN police yesterday announced the arrest of human traffickers in connection with slavery at firms supplying major US supermarket chains.

The arrests were made on Monday and late on Friday in the island village of Benjina, according to National Police anti-trafficking unit chief Lieutenant Colonel Arie Dharmanto.

Five Thai boat captains and two Indonesian employees at Pusaka Benjina Resources, one of the largest fishing firms in eastern Indonesia, were taken into custody after a journalistic investigation exposed the use of slave labour.

Thousands of fishermen from Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand were put on fishing boats in Thailand — sometimes after being tricked or kidnapped — and brought to work in Indonesian waters where they were not allowed to leave.

Many said they were beaten and forced to work up to 24 hours a day with inadequate food and unclean water. Most were paid little or nothing at all.