February 26, 2025 — The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), a global federation of transport workers’ trade unions, has found evidence of worker exploitation and abuse on vessels registered with the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization (SPRFMO).
The ITF report, which was compiled from case studies focused on crime onboard vessels largely operating on what the report called “the squid route” in the Southwest Atlantic and Southeast Pacific between 2013 and 2023, found that crew deaths occurred as much as one every two months in the 10 years the report studied.