Cuerpos sin vida que cruzan fronteras. Trabajo, muerte y comunidad política trasnacional entre trabajadores indonesios en el Sur del Atlántico

Each year, more than five hundred Indonesian seafarers work in the international waters of the South Atlantic on factory ships or squid-fishing vessels from China, South Korea, Taiwan, or Spain, among others. Given that this type of work is considered one of the most dangerous worldwide, it is not uncommon for serious injuries and fatalities to occur. While medical care and the repatriation of injured or deceased sailors at sea are rights enshrined in the earliest conventions on maritime labor by the ILO, the formalization of a norm does not necessarily guarantee its direct application, especially in transnational labor contexts like the maritime sector. Based on data gathered from a study that describes and analyzes the institutional framework for protecting the rights of seafarers of various national origins in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, this article reconstructs the process of repatriating the bodies of Indonesian sailors who died in the Atlantic. In doing so, it seeks to identify part of the political community that enables their right to return home.