Saving Seafood

US lawmakers want to root out any Chinese seafood from the military over Uyghur labor

August 4, 2025 — U.S. lawmakers are looking to eliminate any China-sourced seafood from its military as part of a renewed legislative effort aiming to address the Chinese government’s repression and abuse of the Uyghur minority group.

Human rights groups have long accused the Chinese government of persecuting its largely Muslim Uyghur populations, including via forced sterilization and forced labor. In October 2023, nonprofit journalism organization The Outlaw Ocean Project released a report documenting the use of Uyghur forced labor at several Chinese seafood processors, claiming that at least 47,000 metric tons of seafood were sent to the U.S. from facilities that used Uyghur workers.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Southern Shrimp Alliance pushing US to add another company to Uyghur forced labor list

January 2, 2024 — The Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) is asking the U.S. Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF) to add Rongcheng Sanyue Foodstuff to the U.S.’s Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act’s (UFLPA) entity list – a move which would effectively ban the import of any product from the company.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) added seafood to its list of priorities in the UFLPA in July 2024 – the first addition to the list of high-priority sectors since 2022. The addition signaled the DHS considers seafood as being at a higher risk of utilizing forced labor or state labor transfers of Uyghurs or other ethnic minorities from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US agencies to host webinars on Uyghur forced labor law and the seafood sector

November 8, 2024 — U.S. regulatory agencies will host a series of three webinars in November to discuss the ramifications of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act on the seafood sector.

The webinars come roughly a year after scandalous reports by the Outlaw Ocean Project revealed a litany of labor abuses in China’s seafood industry, including evidence of forced labor by China’s oppressed Uyghur population in seafood supply chains. The reports led to U.S. company’s severing ties with Chinese seafood supplier and increased scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers and regulators.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US Department of Homeland Security adds seafood to list of priorities in Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act

July 10, 2024 — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in its role as the chair of the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF), has added seafood to its list of high-priority sectors for enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA).

The UFLPA was established in 202, and makes importing goods produced with Uyghur labor or labor from China’s Xianjiang province illegal. The DHS’s addition of seafood – alongside aluminum and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) – mark the first additions to the list of high-priority sectors under the act since 2022.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource