The Narrative of Unfree Labour: Analysing Labour Dynamics of Production Networks in the Case of Trafficked Fishermen in Maluku, Indonesia

Abstract: This thesis presents a narrative analysis of slavery and human trafficking case in Maluku, Indonesia. It employs the concepts of the Global Production Network (GPN) framework and unfree labour to situate the slave labour dynamic in the Indonesian fishing industry structure. The main argument is that the dynamic of the Indonesian fishing industry’s production networks is fundamental in reproducing victims’ vulnerable conditions. Firstly, the subjugation of victims’ is present in the dynamic of the GPN’s value creation and value capture. In this part, the vulnerability of victims’ and their conditions are being used by the other actors as an instrument of a political strategy to capture a bigger value in the production networks. Second, the power exercised by other actors to capture the surplus value has also played a significant role in extending such victims’ vulnerable conditions. Here, any solutions taken to solve the problem by other involving actors fail to uphold and empower victims’ ability to commodify their labour power. As a consequence, vulnerabilities have remained embedded in the victims' life, although the solutions taken rest on claims of performance acting in the name of 'improving life’.