August 4, 2021 — A Fijian commercial fishing vessel has received a withhold release order from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which claims forced labor may have been employed onboard the longliner.
The order requires all U.S. agencies to detain tuna and other seafood harvested by the Hangton No. 112, which is owned and operated by Suva, Fiji-based Hangton Pacific Co.
June 17, 2021 — The imposition by U.S. authorities of a ban on imports from a top Chinese fishing firm important raises due diligence issues for American seafood importers, according to a lawyer working on such cases.
On 28 May, U.S. Customs and Border Protection imposed a withhold release order on distant-water fishing firm Dalian Ocean Fishing, barring the company’s products from entering American ports. CBP cited the findings of a yearlong investigation that revealed forced labor in the company’s operations as the basis for its action.
June 10, 2021 — The U.S. government blocked imports of seafood Friday from the entire fleet of a Chinese company that authorities say forced crew members to work in slave-like conditions that led to the deaths of several Indonesian fishermen last year.
Customs and Border Protection said it will place an immediate hold on any imports linked to the more than 30 vessels operated by Dalian Ocean Fishing, under a U.S. law that bars goods suspected to have been produced with forced labor.
Imports from Dalian, which primarily fishes for high-grade tuna, have exceeded $20 million as recently as 2018. Amid financial troubles, and a greater focus on the Asian market, the shipments have dropped. CBP said the company shipped $1.8 million worth of cargo to the U.S. in 2019; nearly $321,000 in 2020; and $763,000 through April 30 of this year.
“We will not tolerate any amount derived from forced labor,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters as he announced the measure.
CBP issued what is known as a withhold release order that halts shipments that have suspected links to forced labor, under a law that has been on the books for decades, ostensibly to protect U.S. producers from unfair competition.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Boston Herald
June 4, 2021 — U.S. sanctions filed last week against a Chinese distant-water fishing firm for alleged forced labor abuses amount to “American slander,” according to a Chinese state media outlet.
The China Youth Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party Youth League, has sought to link the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s sanctioning of the Dalian Ocean Fishing Co. to other Western claims of human rights abuses as part of a coordinated effort to “tarnish” China.
June 3, 2021 — Greenpeace Southeast Asia is claiming that 20 Indonesian manning agencies and 26 fishing firms from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Cote d’Ivoire, and Nauru are allegedly involved in forced labor practices against Indonesian migrant fishers.
The allegations were presented by the organization in a report released 31 May, “Forced Labour at Sea: The Case of Indonesian Migrant Fishers,” released in partnership with Indonesian migrant workers union Serikat Buruh Migran Indonesia (SBMI).
June 1, 2021 — A Chinese spokesperson on Monday, 31 May, rejected American claims that a Chinese fishing company has committed forced labor violations, calling the claims “totally unfounded.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced on Friday, 28 May, that Customs and Border Protection officials had issued an order against the Dalian Ocean Fishing Company, Ltd. That order came after agency officials said they identified all 11 signs of forced labor during an investigation. Those signs included isolating workers, withholding wages, using intimidation, and retaining workers’ identification documents.
May 27, 2021 — The U.S. asked the World Trade Organization’s members to address the problem of forced labor on fishing vessels, seeking the issue to form part of ongoing talks to curb subsidies in the industry.
The U.S. proposal also calls for WTO members’ explicit recognition of the forced-labor problem and proposes additional transparency with respect to those vessels or operators that use forced labor, the U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement Wednesday.
“Forced labor harms the lives and well-being of fishers and workers around the world and it must be eliminated,” U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in the statement.
Global leaders in 2015 tasked the WTO with ending excessive and illegal fishing through eliminating government subsidies that spur companies to deplete the world’s fish stocks and threaten coastal economies. Negotiators have failed to reach an agreement.
WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has made the issue her top priority, and plans a July conference that could help seal an international accord.
May 19, 2021 — Taiwan’s lucrative seafood industry is back under the gun after the country’s top government watchdog demanded corrective measures to prevent forced labor aboard fishing boats.
The Control Yuan, Taiwan’s official government ombudsman body, has issued a series of demands to three government entities due to their failure to address systemic work abuse against the predominantly Southeast Asian fishermen working on Taiwanese vessels.
The United States Department of Labor last year listed fish caught by Taiwanese vessels as products of forced labor, a label that could serve as a basis for government decisions to block imports from Taiwan’s $1.3 billion seafood industry.
Wang Yu-ling, a member of the Control Yuan, said earlier this month that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Labor, and the Fisheries Agency had done nothing to address the issue, despite knowing the environmental organization Greenpeace planned to share findings from its own research with the U.S. government.
May 14, 2021 — The following was released by The Office of Congressman Jared Huffman (D-CA):
A bipartisan bill introduced this week seeks to end slavery and human rights abuses in the international seafood supply chain and fight illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, commonly known as IUU fishing.
“IUU fishing is an environmental and humanitarian crisis, and the U.S. should be a global leader in solving it,” said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife and sponsor of the bill, H.R. 3075, called the “Illegal Fishing and Forced Labor Prevention Act.”
“Illegal fishing operations damage ocean ecosystems and healthy fisheries, and are often the same ones that rely on atrocious, illegal practices like human trafficking and forced labor,” added Huffman, who introduced the bill Tuesday with Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.).
Among other things, the bill would expand NOAA’s seafood import monitoring program to cover all species and increase data requirements for monitoring, including the consideration of labor conditions and improved detection of imports deemed to be at risk of IUU fishing.
Last year, the Government Accountability Office criticized U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials for not doing enough to stop the use of slaves and illegal labor practices in the seafood industry.
Customs works with officials at the seafood import monitoring program and others to find seafood that has been illegally produced (E&E News PM, June 18, 2020).
The focus on the issue has grown in Congress in recent years, with the U.S. importing nearly 90% of its seafood.
In 2016, the Associated Press won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for a series of stories that exposed the use of slaves in the fishing industry in Southeast Asia. The stories showed how the seafood ended up in U.S. supermarkets. After the 18-month investigation, more than 2,000 slaves were freed.
The Huffman-Graves bill would also establish new seafood traceability and labelling requirements, increase outreach on seafood safety and fraud issues, and seek to improve both seafood inspections and the federal enforcement of seafood fraud.
Another provision in the bill would expand the authority of U.S. officials to revoke port privileges for any fishing vessel associated with IUU fishing.
“Our new legislation tackles IUU fishing to protect human lives, promote responsible fishing around the world, and level the playing field for U.S. fishermen,” Huffman said in a statement.
“Not only do we need to ensure an ethical seafood supply chain, but we also need to stop IUU products from entering our markets and competing with those who follow the rules and who keep our domestic fishing industry sustainable.”
Up to a third of the annual global seafood catch, or as much as 56 billion pounds, is the product of IUU fishing, according to estimates.
In the United States, a report by the U.S. International Trade Commission in 2019 found nearly 11% of the nation’s total seafood imports — worth $24 billion — were the products of illegal or unreported fishing.
That report also found that if those IUU imports were eliminated, U.S. fishers would increase their income by nearly $61 million per year.
“The United States can close our markets to illegally sourced seafood, and this bill offers a promising pathway to level the playing field for U.S. fishermen, protect workers at sea and prevent seafood fraud,” said Beth Lowell, deputy vice president of U.S. campaigns for Oceana, one of a handful of organizations that endorsed the bill.
Fisheries research
Separately, Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young introduced H.R. 3128, a bill that would establish the American Fisheries Advisory Committee, a panel that would aid in the awarding of federal grants for fisheries research and development.
The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee yesterday approved its version of the legislation, S. 497, the “American Fisheries Advisory Committee Act,” sponsored by Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) (Greenwire, May 12).
May 13, 2021 — Taiwan’s lucrative fishing industry has come under fire for subjecting its migrant workforce to forced labour and other abuses, contrasting with the government’s promotion of the democratic island as a regional human rights beacon.
Taiwan operates the second largest longline fishing fleet in the world with boats spending months — and sometimes years — crossing remote oceans to supply the seafood that ends up on our supermarket shelves.
But those who work on its vessels — mostly poor migrants from the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam — paint a grim picture of punishing work hours, docked pay, months without family contact, regular beatings, and even death at sea.
Last year the United States added fish caught by Taiwan’s deep water fleets to its list of goods produced by forced labour for the first time.