Slavery and labour abuse in the maritime sector includes practices including unsafe or unsanitary woking conditions, the employment of children, employment without contract, withholding pay, docking recruitment costs, seizing passports, and physical violence (see Characteristics below for more detail).<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Fair labour practices and conditions are guided by the 2007 Work in Fishing Convention and 2013 International Maritime Labour Convention (also known as the Seafarer\u2019s Bill of Rights),<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> with forced labour defined in the ILO Forced Labour Convention.<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Slavery and labour abuses can take place in both sea and land-based components of the fisheries supply chain. At sea, this includes fish processing on board fishing vessels, fish farming on aquaculture installations at sea, or capturing marine resources from rafts, vessels or fishing platforms. Shore-based operations, include work at ship repair yards, work at ports (repairing nets or lines, sorting fish or shellfish), shore-based harvesting of marine resources, and work at fish processing plants. Long distance fishing sees the most abusive practices, with short distance fishers changing employers more regularly.<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Labour abuses are a way for unscrupulous employers to cut costs or to make up crew shortfalls.<\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Overfishing has intensified this problem, because reduced stocks mean that boats often spend longer at sea, increasing operational costs.<\/span>8<\/sup><\/a><\/span>. The pressures caused by climate change may intensify it further still. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Poverty or the destruction of infrastructures through war or natural disasters may increase the vulnerability of people to exploitation as they seek work away from home.<\/span>9<\/sup><\/a><\/span> For example, between Rohingya refugees fleeing anti-Muslim violence and labour in Myanmar have become victims of labour abuses in the Thai fishing sector.<\/span>10<\/sup><\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Southeast Asia is often considered to be the most problematic region for maritime labour abuses,<\/span>11<\/sup><\/a><\/span> though the the problem is global. Other cases have been documented in inland fisheries in Ghana,<\/span>12<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Sierra Leone, and other West African countries,<\/span>13<\/sup><\/a><\/span> amongst Ukrainian fishers and seafarers working in Russia and South Korea,<\/span>14<\/sup><\/a><\/span> as well as in wealthy countries including New Zealand,<\/span>15<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Ireland,<\/span>16<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and the UK.<\/span>17<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n The COVID-19 pandemic has created further issues for maritime labourers\u2019 rights.<\/span>18<\/sup><\/a><\/span> The pandemic caused many countries to close their borders to travellers in an attempt to contain the spread of the virus. In consequence, many seafarers were stranded on their ships, well beyond their initial labour contracts.<\/span>19<\/sup><\/a><\/span> In October 2020, for example 400,000 crew were reported to be stranded globally.<\/span>20<\/sup><\/a><\/span> A further 90,000 cruise line employees were stranded in this period in US waters alone.<\/span>21<\/sup><\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Crew changes were not permitted in many countries despite repeated calls from organisations such as the IMO and International Transport Workers\u2019 Federation (ITF).<\/span>22<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Crew members are often reluctant to speak out about poor working conditions. The ITF reports that \u201cmany seafarers have expressed concerns about the consequences if they raised their voices about their personal fatigue and the impact of the safety of the crew, ship and cargo \u2013 for fear of losing future job opportunities, commonly known as blacklisting\u201d.<\/span>23<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n The UNODC identifies four phases in which illegal labour practices in the maritime sector take place. These include: initial recruitment (or in some cases abduction); transportation or potentially illegal transfer (entry) from one country (origin) to another (destination); exploitation on board vessels; and the subsequent phase of profit laundering.<\/span>24<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Each of these phases has various degrees of criminality. At its most organised, boats and business owners take advantage of a complex regulatory and jurisdictional framework, weak fisheries management practices, forgery of logbooks and other documents the use of flags of convenience.<\/span>25<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Vessels often stay out at sea for longeperiods to reduce the chance of inspection.<\/span>26<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Transhipment of trafficked workers at sea is another method used to facilitate this crime, because vessels do not need to return to port.<\/span>27<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n The problem of slavery in the maritime sector has received significant attention. This has been seen in Thailand, where business owners, corrupt officials, labour brokers, and criminal trafficking networks work together in exploiting vulnerable migrant workers from neighbouring countries such as Myanmar and Cambodia.<\/span>28<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Deception, coercion and violence are used to bring migrants onto fishing vessels.<\/span>29<\/sup><\/a><\/span> In Indonesia, where 1342 trafficked fishers were rescued in 2015, they reported to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) that they were told that the jobs would be low-skilled and they would have all of their needs met onboard.<\/span>30<\/sup><\/a><\/span> In many cases, the destination of the work was different from that promised. Cases of coercion were also documented. Labourers were promised more lucrative jobs outside of the fishing sector but were forced onto the vessel when they arrived at the pier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cases in New Zealand, Scotland, and Northern Ireland also saw deception about employment conditions and the minimum wage that would be paid, with coercion leading to victims signing contracts.<\/span>31<\/sup><\/a><\/span> These practices demonstrate labour abuses can be a systematic practice that involves a broad and organised network of licit and illicit actors across borders engaging in criminal activities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n These documented cases match human trafficking as defined in the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children<\/em> due to the role of coercion and deception in the recruitment process.<\/span>32<\/sup><\/a><\/span> They therefore see high degrees of criminalization. There are debates on whether the resultant focus on human trafficking is useful in other cases, however. Some argue that a trafficking framework does not account for the wide variety of migrant worker circumstances, nor the agency of the workers themselves in trying to improve their own lives.<\/span>35<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Because Thailand\u2019s fishing sector accepted undocumented workers, it was sometimes seen as a way for migrant workers without documentation to avoid arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once onboard vessels, a combination of practices that facilitate forced labour. These include the confiscation of identity documents, not issuing contracts or seaman\u2019s books, withholding pay, forced detention and bonded labour.<\/span>36<\/sup><\/a><\/span> These practices take place in a context where it is already difficult to physically escape due to the remoteness of the vessels, or due to guards preventing escape at port.<\/span>37<\/sup><\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Debt bondage is a common feature of forced labour, where labourers are charged for their placement on board a vessel and expected to pay it off over time through their labour.<\/span>38<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Enslavement occurs because the terms of these bonds are often open-ended, and the decision to consider a debt paid is at the discretion of the lender. This is particularly problematic if labourers are charged inflated costs of keeping them onboard, making it impossible to escape the debt bondage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an IOM report, fishers\u2019 working hours had to be extreme in order to earn enough money to pay off debt: 46% worked between 16 and 20 hours per day and 32% between 21 and 24 hours per day.<\/span>39<\/sup><\/a><\/span> In a case identified in Northern Ireland, Philippine workers often worked seven days in a row and for up to 34 hours without sleep.<\/span>40<\/sup><\/a><\/span> In a New Zealand case, further debts were incurred through arbitrary deductions, aggressive agency fees, and the manipulation of exchange rates.<\/span>41<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Debts may also be kept hidden with workers faced with the need to pay an unexpected amount before they are able to leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some fishers are chained or confined onboard.<\/span>42<\/sup><\/a><\/span> In the most extreme cases, chaining may be combined with physical violence, sexual violence, psychological abuse, and even murder to prevent insubordination.<\/span>43<\/sup><\/a><\/span> A 2013 International Labour Organization (ILO) study found that more than 16 per cent of Burmese fishers surveyed on Thai fishing vessels had been severely beaten while on the job.<\/span>44<\/sup><\/a><\/span> A 2009 survey by the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP) found that 59 per cent of interviewed migrants trafficked aboard Thai fishing boats had witnessed the murder of a fellow worker.<\/span>45<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Some workers are thrown overboard when they are killed or die from exhaustion, or even if they fall ill or get injured. This prevents any accountability for the loss of life, because there are no investigations into the cause of death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Child labour is also sometimes used. In 1999, for example, the ILO identified forced child labour on fishing platforms in Indonesia.<\/span>46<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Illegal labour practices short of slavery, as set out in the ILO\u2019s Maritime Labour and Work in Fishing conventions, are also common. Problems including working excessive working hours, limited access to healthcare, unsanitary working and living conditions, restrictions on mobility, and insufficient food and rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is difficult to assess the extent of labour abuses in the maritime sector for several reasons. First, systematic studies of forced labour focus primarily on women and children.<\/span>47<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Second, they tend to cover specific industries such as sex work. Third, slavery practices happen in isolation at sea. Fourth, fishers are often reluctant to see themselves as victims of forced labour.<\/span>48<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Fifth, government officials do not always regard these acts as human trafficking.<\/span>49<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Finally, there is no centralised global reporting mechanism for cases of forced labour, and any data reports tend to be geographically restricted. These obstacles become even more problematic when trying to ascertain the scope of broader labour abuses short of slavery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is clear, however, that the number of cases is likely to be significant due to an increasing demand for cheap labour in fisheries particularly. In Thailand alone, there is a shortfall of 74,000 labourers in the industry which suggests that there will be an ongoing demand.<\/span>50<\/sup><\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a strong evidence base that suggests that victims of labour abuse in the fishing industry particularly suffer significant physical harm due to overwork, a lack of safety precautions, abuse such as beatings, and illness due to poor conditions.(IOM 2015; ILO 2017; Yea 2020) These are widespread. In a 2017 survey undertaken by the ILO of fishers in Thailand, 25 per cent of respondents had experienced work-related injuries and ten per cent had experienced physical abuse.(ILO 2017) At the most extreme, this includes death of the workers.(IOM 2016)<\/p>\n\n\n\n When combined with ongoing debts and threats of violence, these stressors also cause ongoing psychological harm to fishers.{Iglesias-Rios et al. 2018; Pocock et al. 2018; Yea et al. 2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because they are often treated as illegal workers, there is generally a lack of restorative justice for fishers who are deported when \u2018rescued\u2019. This leads to ongoing effects even when workers are repatriated. As Yea et al. demonstrate, there are \u201ca lack of job opportunities when returning home, stigma and censure from families and communities, and ongoing health problems\u201d.(Yea et al. 2022; see also, Yea 2020).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Labour abuse causes economic issues in communities beyond the fishers themselves. Often, families in countries of origin depend on remittances, and are therefore negatively impacted when wages are not paid.(ILO 2021). Licit fishing businesses and communities are negatively impacted because they cannot compete with those engaged in labour abuse due to the disparity of operating costs (Derks 2010; Malik Forthcoming).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Slavery and labour abuses have significant links with IUU Fishing. The Indonesia cases, for example, involved labour abuses in parallel with IUU Fishing activities.<\/span>51<\/sup><\/a><\/span> This linkage results from the fact that vessels engaging in IUU Fishing are often well-established in avoiding detection and regulation, allowing for labour abuses to occur, and IUU fishers tend to be principally economically motivated and willing to cut costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are also linkages to human trafficking occurring outside of the fishing industry specifically. This is because the trafficking of labour into the fishing sector depends on irregular migrant routes that are also exploited by human traffickers.<\/span>52<\/sup><\/a><\/span> There have been several cases involving the trafficking of persons by the same networks for the purpose of organized sexual exploitation by fishers and seafarers.<\/span>53<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n The primary response to forced labour is regulatory in nature. The ILO\u2019s Work in Fishing Convention, for example, establishes minimum requirements for work on board vessels, accommodation and food, occupational safety and health protection, as well as medical care.<\/span>54<\/sup><\/a><\/span> However, while the Convention has come into force internationally, only 20 states have ratified it to date.<\/span>55<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n The International Maritime Organization (IMO) also has conventions on standards of training, including the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW),<\/span>56<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Fishing Vessel Personnel (STCW-F).<\/span>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.safeseas.net\/evidence\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/48945771808_a19ac7eb06_k-1024x576.jpg\")
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