Recent in-depth studies have described and analysed severe cases of forced labour and human trafficking in the fisheries sector. Whereas the fisheries sector counts among the most important economic sectors providing food security and employment worldwide, these studies reveal that, on board fishing vessels, fishers - many of them migrant workers - are subjected to extreme forms of human rights abuses, including forced labour and human trafficking.
This report examines recent literature on forced labour and human trafficking in the fisheries sector, with the focus on fishing vessels engaged in commercial marine fisheries. The report considers institutional and legal frameworks as well as multistakeholder initiatives that have the potential to impact fishers’ safety and working conditions.
Valuable input was received from the participants at an ILO consultation in Turin, Italy, in September 2012. The main questions answered in this report are: What do we know about forced labour and human trafficking in the fisheries sector (Chapter 1)? Which institutional and legal frameworks exist to combat this problem (Chapter 2)? Finally, what are the main issues that will inform our discussion on how to move forward (Conclusion)?
The literature surveyed for this report describes severe instances of labour abuse. Migrant workers in particular are too often deceived and coerced by brokers and recruitment agencies and forced to work on board vessels under the threat of force or by means of debt bondage. Victims describe illness, physical injury, psychological and sexual abuse, deaths, and their vulnerability on board vessels in remote locations of the sea for months and years at a time. Fishers are forced to work for long hours at very low pay, and the work is intense, hazardous and difficult. Capture fisheries have amongst the highest occupational fatality rates in the world.
Recent trends within the fisheries sector, including overfishing, illegal fishing and a shift in sourcing the workforce from developed to developing States mean that more relatively low cost migrant workers are employed by the fisheries sector. Lack of training, inadequate language skills and lack of enforcement of safety and labour standards make these fishers particularly vulnerable to forced labour and human trafficking. There are also strong indicators that forced labour and human trafficking in the fisheries sector are frequently linked to other forms of crime, such as transnational organized fisheries crime and corruption.