Coronavirus in Indonesia: strikers block access to the world's largest gold mine

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4 min

Since Monday, a thousand workers have gone on strike to protest against their working condition in the Grasberg complex, also a copper mine, in these times of coronavirus. Some have not been able to leave the mine in West Papua, in eastern Indonesia, since the start of the epidemic. The workers continue to negotiate with the American operator Freeport.

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With our correspondent in South-East Asia, Gabrielle Maréchaux

They still have their hard hat on, but they have stopped working. In a circle, these Papuan workers express their anger by performing a traditional dance.

Trade unionist Aser Gobai is among them, at an altitude of 4,000 m. “  The workers have two demands, ” she explains. The first concerns the regulations in force in these times of pandemic. The workers had to stay at the mine site for six months and were unable to visit their families. Even though the wife or child of one of them in Timika had died, there was no longer a bus for him to go.  "

Dispossession of ancestral land

“  Then, continues the unionist, the workers also spontaneously blocked the road to the mine because they believe that the management of Freeport is not up to its regulations concerning the mechanical procedure of the mine in these times of pandemic, and they feel neglected . "

They are around 25,000 working on this largest pile of gold in the world, symbol for many Papuans of the dispossession of their ancestral land.

In #Papua, workers at the world's largest gold mine have gone on strike. They have not stopped working for 6 months and cannot return to see their families because of the new # Covid19 regulation. ≃ 25,000 of them work at an altitude of 4000 m. pic.twitter.com/Q71N1ThgPs

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• Indonesia
• Papua New Guinea
• Coronavirus
• Health and medicine

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