Up to 550 slaves found on island

The number of enslaved fishermen found on a remote Indonesian island has now reached nearly 550, after a fact-finding team returned for a single day to make sure no one had been left behind after hundreds of men were removed in a dramatic rescue.

Many of the 210 identified on Thursday were Burmese who wanted to leave, but there were a few holdouts - men who claimed they were owed years of back pay from their bosses, said Steve Hamilton, deputy chief of mission at the International Organization for Migration in Jakarta.

An in-depth investigation by The Associated Press published last month led to the discovery of massive rights abuses in the island village of Benjina and surrounding waters.