Exclusive: Crews marooned at sea off Africa found in squalor, with cardboard bunks, 18-hour shifts, and payment in fish
When environmental campaigners began tracking a hi-tech South Korean trawler off the coast of West Africa, they were looking for proof of illegal fishing of dwindling African stocks. What they uncovered was an altogether different kind of travesty: human degradation so extreme it echoed the slavery they thought had been abolished more than a century ago.
"It was horrendous," said Duncan Copeland, a senior campaigner at the Environmental Justice Foundation, who boarded the South Korean-flagged trawler at the end of 2008 with naval forces from Sierra Leone.
"The men were working in the fish hold with no air or ventilation in temperatures of 40-45 degrees. It was rusty, greasy, hot and sweaty. There were cockroaches everywhere in the galleys and their food was in disgusting boxes. All they had for washing was a pump bringing up salt water. They stank. It was heartbreaking."
As their investigation continued, the EJF found vessel after vessel, some up to 40 years old, rusted and in terrible repair, engaged in pirate fishing – an illegal trade that damages already fragile marine stocks and exploits human labour in shocking conditions.
The 36 crew members on the boat boarded by Copeland came from China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Sierra Leone. Eight men shared a tiny windowless area of the fish hold with four cardboard "bunks" resting on planks. Four worked in the hold sorting and packing fish for the European market while four slept, and they would alternate, literally rolling out to allow the next to roll in.
The Sierra Leonean crew members said they were not paid with money but in boxes of "trash" fish – the bycatch rejected by the European market – which they would be given to sell locally. If anyone complained, the captain would abandon them on the nearest beach, they said.
"The conditions aren't good, but we can't do anything about it," a worker on another South Korean-registered ship told investigators. "We live with it, because it is hard to find work. If someone offers you a salary of $200 to support your family it's not good, but we have to live with it."
In May, about 150 Senegalese men were found labouring in a ship off Sierra Leone; working up to 18 hours through the day and into the night, eating and sleeping in spaces less than a metre high. The vessel carried a licence number for importing fish to the EU, showing it had passed apparently strict hygiene standards.
EJF also found several apparently redundant trawlers out at sea still with crew on board, some of whom had been there more than a year with no radio or safety equipment.
"I was sent here by the company," said one fisherman on a trawler off the coast of Guinea. "The company sends a boat with supplies to bring me food like fish and shrimps. Nobody wants to come here."
The fishermen's tales reveal the human toll of pirate fishing, a business thought to produce a catch of at least 11m tonnes of fish a year worth more than $10bn (£6.3bn).
Living quarters inside one of the pirate fishing ships. Photograph: EJF Vessels often stay at sea for months on end, with reefers coming alongside every couple of weeks to unload the catch and resupply them. As they operate in remote waters, they can avoid detection for long periods. The crew are effectively imprisoned, most cannot swim and many of those interviewed by EJF meet the UN definition of forced labour. Reports of violence, withholding of pay and retention of documents are common, said Copeland.
The investigators found a crew of 200 Senegalese operating off Sierra Leone in 2006. The men were living in a makeshift structure built on the stern of the ship, divided into four levels with barely a metre of headroom and cardboard packing boxes crammed together to serve as mattresses.
The ship did not appear on the official list of vessels licenced to fish in Sierra Leone at the time of sighting. Records show that it has visited Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, which is the largest landing point for west African fish into Europe and has been criticised by senior EU officials for its lax inspection regime.
But the investigators' original interest in fish stocks also produced worrying evidence.
Several of the vessels boarded by EJF are bottom trawlers, licensed to import to the EU, catching high value fish such as shrimp, lobster and tuna. Bottom trawlers drag heavy chains across the sea bed, scraping up everything in their path including coral. In one case, the boat had been dumping more than 70% of its catch overboard, including sharks – once the fins had been removed for the Asian market.
The vessel's owner had been putting its Senegalese crew out to sea in small boats to bring in tuna and shark to sell as caught by "hook and line, having first identified fishing targets with global positioning software. Many of the Senegalese were fishermen unable to sustain a livelihood in their own waters because stocks have been decimated by overfishing by hi-tech trawlers.
The EJF believes most illegal fishing is carried out by ships flying flags of convenience. Under international maritime law, the country where a ship is registered is responsible for its activities. Some countries allow vessels of other nationalities to register with them for a few hundred dollars and are known to ignore offences.
Pirate vessels can re-flag several times a season and frequently change their name. They are often backed by shell companies, which makes their real owners hard to trace and law enforcement extremely difficult. The maximum fine for illegal fishing is around $100,000, which is typically less than two weeks' profit from the trade, according to EJF.
The South Korean captain, first mate and engineer of one of the ships were arrested by the Sierra Leone navy and fined $30,000 plus their catch for fishing in the country's inshore exclusion zone. The same ship was however spotted in August, fishing again off the coast of Sierra Leone and Liberia according to EJF.
All at Sea, the Abuse of Human Rights aboard Illegal Fishing Vessels, EJF. www.ejfoundation.org
Deciding whether the fish on your plate is from an illegal catch from west African waters remains difficult, but it should be getting easier after a crackdown in recent months by the British and European authorities.
Under an EU regulation brought in this year, it is forbidden to import fish into the member states unless it has been certified as legal by the flag state of the vessel. That means if a ship sails under a Spanish flag, Spain has to certify the catch as legal. Campaigners believe the problem remains that some countries, including South Korea and China, are not effectively policing fishing vessels using their flags.
Investigators believe pirate fish are "laundered" – packed in boxes with the stamp of a licensed fishing boat. During checks in 2006 and 2007 the Environmental Justice Foundation found west Africa-caught denton, commonly sold in the UK as snapper or sea bream, in London fish markets. Some boxes of frozen denton carried the logo of a Chinese company that operates many of the illegal fishing vessels the EJF had observed operating in Guinea. The problem of pirate fish reaching the plate is thought to be greater for consumers in southern Europe, which consumes the bulk of west African fish, shrimp, prawn and lobster.
By KYAW THEIN KHA |
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| Burmese migrant laborers sort fish at a market in Phuket, an island in Thailand better known for its upscale resorts. (Photo: AFP) |
Aung Than is no ordinary fisherman. At 33, he is already a veteran of the seas. His years of hard work and commitment to his job have earned him the position of “yay shuu,” or master, of the Thai-owned vessel on which he and his fellow Burmese crew members make their living in the Andaman Sea.
As the most experienced and highly qualified member of his ship’s crew, he earns 10,000 baht (US $310) a month—about three times the basic salary of a Burmese fisherman working in Thailand, and 10 times what he would make in his native Burma.
Thailand’s fishing industry is kept afloat by a massive influx of migrant labor from neighboring Burma. Both on the ships and in the fish-processing plants, Burmese make up the majority of workers, doing jobs shunned by Thais. Fishermen are in especially high demand, working long hours for low wages, often risking life and limb to keep consumers around the world supplied with seafood.
Not surprisingly, human trafficking is rife in this industry, and reports of horrific abuses are common. But not all Burmese who find themselves aboard a Thai fishing vessel consider themselves victims of exploitation.
Aung Than (not his real name) has worked as a fisherman in Thailand for 10 years. He says he sends money back to his mother and sister in Burma and hopes to save enough to buy his own boat so he can return home someday and work for himself.
He now lives in the village of Ngan Yong, in Phang Nga Province’s Khuraburi District. The village is home to an estimated 5,000 migrant workers from Burma—most of them members of the Mon and Dawei ethnic groups. Aung Than is originally from Tavoy, or Dawei, the capital of Burma’s Tenasserim Division.
According to Thailand’s National Statistics Organization, there are around 7,600 registered Burmese migrants working on the country’s 4,000 legally operating fishing vessels. But these figures do not take into account the large number of unlicensed fishing boats in Thai waters, or the thousands of Burmese migrants employed without proper documentation.
With so much competition, it’s not easy to become a master fisherman.
“You must work very hard and show total commitment,” said Aung Than. “If you make an impression on your boss and earn his trust, he will promote you to yay shuu.”
It took six years of “proving himself” as an ordinary crew member before Aung Than was finally deemed worthy of earning $10 a day. And now that he has reached the pinnacle of his profession, he is expected to earn every baht that he is paid—supervising his crew, making sure they’re mending their nets properly when they’re on shore and using them to maximum effect when they’re at sea.
A yay shuu must know the sea as well as the most seasoned sailor. He is completely responsible for the safety of his crew and—more importantly from his employer’s perspective—the condition of his ship, which he must be able to operate in all kinds of weather.
Aung Than recalled one night when high winds created huge waves that lashed his boat. Some of his crew could not swim and many feared for their lives.
“But my own greatest fear was that our boat would be capsized by a wave and sink to the bottom of the sea,” he said.
“It is very dangerous work,” he added. “Many fishermen have lost their lives trying to make a living this way.”
In addition to their basic salaries, many fisherman receive bonuses based on the value of their catch. These are usually paid out once a month or once every six months, depending on the size and type of boat.
“I get paid 3,000 baht a month, but in a good month, I can earn double that,” said Kyaw Linn, one of the regular crew members on Aung Than’s boat. He said he had no idea how his bonus was calculated and had no choice but to accept whatever amount his Thai employer said he was owed.
Kyaw Linn’s job is to go out in a small boat equipped with a bright light in search of fish for the main boat to catch. The fish are attracted to the light, and when enough of them start to appear, Kyaw Linn contacts the main boat. Aung Than then decides if it’s worthwhile putting down their nets.
“We don’t fish for a few nights before and after the full moon,” he said. “The fish don’t follow our boat because all they can see is the moonlight shining in the water.”
In some ways, these Burmese fisherman are like the fish they catch, always looking for a brighter future. Most say they want to return home someday, but they know that their prospects for earning a living there are bleak.
“I’ll go back to Burma when I can make the same amount of money there as I can earn in Thailand,” said Aung Than.
Burmese migrant workers fall prey to traffickers with the promise of work in Thailand.
Burmese migrant laborers repair a fish net at a fish market on Phuket island in Thailand, July 21, 2009.
BANGKOK—Burmese migrant workers in Thailand have described paying large fees to human traffickers who promised them jobs in the southeast Asian kingdom, only to sell them into forced labor on arrival.
One Burmese migrant from Myawaddy currently in the care of social services in Bangkok said he had been promised passage to Thailand and a job in the construction industry by a Burmese named Ko Sein Aung.
"He was the carrier who handed us over to the person taking us across to Thailand along the illegal route. We had to pay him for that. It was 2,000 baht (U.S. $60)," the worker said.
"He told us we would get a job in construction. He said we would earn 195 baht (U.S. $6) a day. We were all sold off including me for 22,000 baht (U.S. $658) each to the fishing industry."
He said people in charge of the boats locked up the workers every night, before taking them back to the boats the next morning. They were not paid for their work.
"Every day when the boat we were working on reached the jetty and after we had unloaded the fish at night we were taken to our rooms and kept there, and the door locked from the outside," he said.
"That was how we were detained. The next day only when the fishing boat is due to leave were we sent to the boat."
Forced to migrate
Currently, Thailand is home to an estimated 2 million Burmese migrant workers, of whom only around half are there legally.
Burmese workers are highly visible in and around Bangkok and near the Central World Plaza, and Burmese children under 10 years old can be seen selling food on street stalls.
Many of the migrants say they were forced to move because of extreme poverty back home.
An ethnic Karen migrant from the troubled border area between Thailand and Burma said some of the trafficking was being carried out by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), which recently made a ceasefire agreement with Burma's military government.
"It was Ko Than Win from the DKBA who told us that he would find us work in Thailand. We had to pay him 15,000 kyat (U.S. $2,304)," the Karen migrant said.
"He took us to Bangkok. He said he would give us a good job in the shrimp industry. We had to wait 10 days along the way," he said.
"We were hungry. We were just given plain rice with nothing else."
Help for refugees
Some of the migrants are being taken care of by social services in Thailand after reporting beatings and other physical abuse after being sold off as slave labor, Thai officials said.
"There are a total of 47 Burmese nationals with us here," an official at the Patuhtani social welfare and rehabilitation department of the Thai government identified as Mr. Suwan said.
"We have arranged food and accommodations for them and are helping them with their rights and claims for damages," he added.
The group included men, women, and three 15-year-old children, according to a Thai lawyer surnamed Sriwun who is helping the refugees.
"Our lawyers’ group is helping refugees who have been treated unjustly, no matter what nationality they are," he said.
He said the Thai authorities had arrested a Burmese woman and two Thai nationals in connection with the allegations of human trafficking.
According to Mr. Suwan, the case could take up to 18 months to bring to trial.
The Myawaddy migrant said he was discovered by an aid group while working on the fishing boat. He had already been beaten following on escape attempt, he added.
"After we were caught they put me back in my room and beat me," he said. "A woman beat me with a two-yard pipe that she always carried. She beat me continuously. She also threatened to kill my father."
Trafficking hub
According to the U.S. State Department's latest Trafficking in Persons Report, Thailand is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation.
"Women and children are trafficked from Burma, Cambodia, Laos, the People’s Republic of China, Vietnam, Russia, and Uzbekistan for commercial sexual exploitation in Thailand," the report said, saying the trafficking victims were usually from poorer rural areas who were attracted by the kingdom's relative prosperity.
But it lauded efforts by the Thai government to address the problem, including the expansion of a network of temporary shelters for trafficking victims from 99 to 138, with at least one temporary shelter in each Thai province.
The Thai government refers victims of trafficking to one of eight longer-stay regional shelters run by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security (MSDHS), where they receive psychological counseling, food, board, and medical care, the report said.
In 2008, Thai government shelters provided protection and social services for at least 102 repatriated Thai victims and 520 foreigners trafficked to Thailand.
Original reporting by Nay Rein Kyaw for RFA's Burmese service. Director: Nancy Shwe. Translated by Soe Thinn. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.
There's a rumor going around the water cooler at Thai export officials central: it's time to crack down on child and forced labor in the frozen fish industry, because otherwise the U.S. is going to stop buying our products. I've not been able to corroborate the rumor that the U.S. is finally getting serious about an import ban on goods made by children and forced labor. But that's okay, because the Thai officials believe it, and that means they're cracking down internally on some of the worst offender producers of slave-made exports to the U.S.: frozen fish.
If you've enjoyed a fish stick in past few years (a school cafeteria-themed party recently broke my fish stick fast), then chances are you've eaten fish caught and processed in Thailand. The frozen shrimp industry, as well as other frozen food products have come under heavy fire from international human rights groups for exploitative labor practices, like child labor and slavery, and poor treatment of workers. The industry employs huge numbers of migrant laborers, many of whom are not paid legal or livable wages, and some of whom are trafficked. Overall, 22% of Thailand's exports go to the U.S., and frozen seafood is a huge part of those exports. A U.S. ban on goods made with forced or child labor would certainly force Thailand to clean up their fishing industry.
But the interesting part of this story is that Thai officials are taking action not because of an actual ban, but because of reports that a ban may be put in place. This could be an indication that the U.S. doesn't really need the tough-to-pass policy that would seriously reform our import system, but just the impression that those changes are moments away. Sure, an actual ban on goods made by child and forced labor would be ideal, but that is going to be hard to get in today's economic and political climate. A rumor might work just as well in accomplishing what we want to accomplish — getting the producers of products shipped to the U.S. to treat workers better.
Image via Wikipedia
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