Saving Seafood

Biden administration announces additional H-2B visas

December 14, 2022 — The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden announced Monday, 12 December, that additional H-2B visas will be available for American companies in need of temporary labor over the next nine months.

The U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have jointly issued a temporary final rule that will allow nonagricultural employers to apply for 64,716 additional visas, which have been divvied up into four pools. According to a DHS news release, it’s the first time those two federal agencies have taken such a step.

Read the full article at SeafoodSoure

Taiwan Ordered to Address Forced Labor on Its Fishing Vessels

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.

Read the full story at The Diplomat

Trump administration expected to add 30,000 more foreign workers temporarily into the U.S.

May 7, 2019 — The Trump administration plans to allow 30,000 more foreign workers temporarily into the United States for seasonal work through the end of September, a move that reflects how the booming economy has complicated President Donald Trump’s efforts to restrict legal immigration.

Details of the plan were in a draft rule obtained by The Associated Press.

It would benefit oyster shucking companies, fisheries, loggers and seasonal hotels, including Trump’s own Mar-a-Lago club — all of which use the visas to hire migrants for temporary work they say Americans won’t do.

The visas, known as H-2Bs, will be granted only to returning foreign workers who have had the visa before, over the last three fiscal years. Many of the visa holders return to the same employers year after year. Those workers have already been vetted and are trusted and not likely to stay past their visa, officials said.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will begin taking applications from employers on behalf of the workers once the temporary rule is published in the Federal Register, expected on Wednesday.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at USA Today