November 10, 2013 — Is it a case of modern day slavery? Bad working conditions? Or just sour grapes over pay? Allegations are flying about distress on the docks from the crew of some Honolulu fishing vessels.
Honolulu's fishing fleet can be floating gold mines. Their catch can net a six-figure haul at the fish auction after just days at sea. They're raking it in, we're eating it up.
But for the workers on board some ships, this is no luxury cruise.
"When we started hearing her story we felt it had all the hallmarks of human trafficking," said Soo Sun Choe, of immigrant-rights advocates Pacific Gateway Center, referring allegations brought forth to them by the relative of some of the crew.
From her and others, there are allegations of hunger, thirst, untreated illness and injury, unpaid or low paid wages, abuse and even suspicious death.
"There are bed bugs, workers are often not fed on time, when they pull into the harbor they may be asking others for food," Choe said. "This is actually the second or third case coming to us within the past year."
KHON2's Action Line has also heard about alleged victims from advocates on their behalf who are crying out for help.
"I feel like they are slaves because they cannot go out, they do not have any money like everybody," said T. Robinson, who wants to be identified publically by only her first initial to avoid what she fears will be retaliation from powerful business and political officials in her native Kiribas. "When they work they're supposed to get paid but they don't get paid."
She shows us contracts written in English for crew from Kiribas who don't speak English, paystubs that deduct from the few hundred dollars a month wage to whittle down to nearly nothing when payday finally comes after more than two years