Seafood is increasingly acknowledged for its nutritional benefits and a large variety of (certified) seafood products can be found on retail shelves and restaurant menus at one’s convenience. However, numerous research reports show widespread human rights abuses in seafood supply chains. As many seafood companies fail to improve transparency and working conditions in a meaningful way, it is crucial to enhance scrutiny of this sector and hold supply chain actors accountable for abuses.
Seafood, which includes all fish, molluscan shellfish and crustaceans, ranks among the most extensively traded food commodities globally, with a total value of USD 624 billion in 2023. By volume, the EU + UK imported more than 6.5 million tons in 2021, while the US ranked third with 3.1 million tons. China imported a volume of almost 5.4 million tons, of which an estimated 75% is re-exported, meaning it is processed in China and shipped back abroad.
What are the impacts on workers?
The sector continues to account for a high occurrence of forced labour and child labour. Labour rights abuses in the seafood supply chains of Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, India and China have been widely documented. Striking issues relate to (the lack of) employment contracts, wage pay and living conditions, such as debt bondage. This occurs when workers receive wages irregularly, sometimes only once in several months or years, making them dependent on loans from their employers for their expenses between wage payments. Cases of beatings and forced labour of 20-22 hours a day with little to no pay and no basic necessities illustrate the inhumane conditions.
Apart from human rights abuses on fishing vessels, Chinese seafood companies were found to use forced labour in processing plants that export seafood to the US and Europe, including by Uyghurs and North Koreans. Child labour prevails throughout the seafood supply chain, from fisheries and aquaculture to processing, and is fueled by the lack of access to resources, support and education for fisheries and aquaculture communities due to, among others, depleted fish stocks and climate vulnerability. Cases of children performing hazardous activities, like using dangerous tools and chemicals, occur in the fishery industries of Paraguay and Vietnam. There is even evidence of the prevalence of forced labour and trafficking in Ghana - the worst forms of child labour.
The countries where such abuses occur are among the leading seafood exporters to the US and European markets, either directly or via processing locations in other countries. Earlier research by Profundo mapping supply chain links with Indonesian shrimp producers allegedly involved in labour rights abuses showed that their shrimp was sold at Dutch and German retailers. Recently, Profundo identified supply chain links with the key seafood players globally, mapping shrimp and tuna supply chains and linking financial flows to major seafood companies.
The serious labour issues that have been documented likely only represent the tip of the iceberg. Forced labour on fishing vessels is hard to identify and eliminate due to the vulnerability and the isolation of workers on vessels at sea. Frequently, fishermen are transferred between vessels and may not remember where the abuse occurred or lack the means to report it. What is more, port authorities are only able to inspect a few vessels. Fisheries observers tasked with monitoring the vessels are often faced with harassment at sea. In April 2023, a fisheries observer was evacuated after alleged harassment on a Portuguese vessel.
Other impacts
Aside from labour issues, the fishery industry has deteriorating impacts on marine biodiversity through overfishing of targeted and by-catch species by industrial fishing fleets fishing in other countries’ waters (called Distant-Water Fishing (DWF)). The largest DWF fleets are from China and the EU (mainly Spain, but also Portugal and France). Consequently, local fishing communities face depleted fish stocks and diminishing livelihoods. In West Africa, this is one driver of irregular migration to Europe.
As if this is not enough, the fisheries industry is linked to highly organised, transnational crime; fishing vessels are used for illegal activities such as drug trafficking during transshipments, which means that catch is transferred from one vessel to another at sea, and the smuggling of people and weapons. It allows for corruption, tax evasion and money laundering while harming coastal communities and the marine environment through illegal fishing.
What is fuelling the issues?
The complex, transnational, and opaque nature of seafood supply chains helps conceal the pressing labour, environmental, and social issues that persist within the sector. An example illustrating this complexity concerns tuna caught in the Indian and Pacific Oceans by vessels not owned but managed by a Taiwanese company. The company ships the tuna to Thailand and the Seychelles for processing and subsequently to France for sale.
Shipping vessels are often registered under Flags of Convenience (FoC) of a country unrelated to the country of origin of the fishing company. For example, Taiwanese vessel owners have been found using FoCs to obtain access to fishing quotas in other countries while evading regulatory measures for labour rights.
In addition, transshipments at sea are a common practice to allow fishing vessels to stay longer at sea and reduce fuel costs, as the vessels to which they transfer their catch also provide fuel and supplies. This practice offers a chance to hide Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing and human rights abuses at sea without supervision, tracking, or access to communication. IUU fishing is estimated to represent more than 20% of global catch.
Besides transshipments, the practice of DWF is encouraged by government subsidies and allows vessels to travel further, stay longer at sea, and catch more seafood. DWF has been associated with suspected cases of forced labour on vessels owned by companies from China and Taiwan, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nauru, while fishing all over the world.
But what about farmed seafood?
Aquaculture, farming of fish, shrimp and other seafood in basins near the coast, seems to offer a good alternative for the fishing sector's biodiversity, social and labour impacts. But in fact, more aquaculture hardly leads to less fishing as farmed seafood is fed with fishmeal, of which the majority (estimated at 73%) is obtained from wild-caught fish, like anchovies. Both fishing of these stocks and the production of fishmeal were found to have deteriorating impacts on the environment, health, food security, and working conditions in fishmeal-producing regions, such as India, Vietnam, Peru, Mauretania and other West African countries. Further concerns are related to the widespread use and misuse of antibiotics in aquaculture, resulting in an increase in antimicrobial resistance and antibiotic residues in farmed seafood and related products destined for human consumption.
Moreover, the processing stages of seafood – both wild-caught and farmed - appear to be rife with abuses of workers, too. In India, research revealed in March 2024 how the shrimp sector exploits vulnerable groups to work under dangerous and abusive conditions. Among the companies concerned is Devi Seafoods, an exporter of shrimp to the US and European countries.
Even more worrying is that many of the companies researched, including Devi Seafoods, are ASC- and/or BAP-certified, certification systems for ensuring the sustainability of aquaculture products. Problems with these certification schemes include conflicts of interest, as factories and farms frequently pay for audits, and auditors often miss abuses due to a box-ticking approach. Additionally, ASC announces audits in advance, allowing employers to hide abuses and instruct workers on responses.
Certifications provide some assurance on the sustainability aspects of farmed and wild-caught seafood. Still, they are no silver bullet: a recent evaluation of 17 seafood certification and rating programs shows that they do not do enough to incorporate human rights, particularly when it comes to forced labour.
Holding the sector to account
As many seafood companies fail to improve transparency and working conditions meaningfully, enhancing scrutiny of this sector and holding supply chain actors accountable for abuses is crucial. Governments should take responsibility. An increasing number of countries are ratifying the relevant conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which is an essential step towards collective international action and should be encouraged. As recommended by the ILO, governments should ensure they enforce fishery sector regulations, implement port state control, control recruitment agencies for workers on vessels, set up transnational agencies to cooperate for law enforcement, and sharing information and intelligence.
The companies at the downstream end of the supply chains, such as retailers, consumer goods companies and the food service sector, also share responsibility. They should establish effective and transparent human rights due diligence procedures and conduct meaningful engagement instead of solely changing suppliers after a scandal or relying on certifications for sustainable seafood. Furthermore, industry-wide collaboration for transparency should become standard practice, disclosing annually updated details on suppliers, locations and vessels. Hopefully, the new European Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) will push the relevant companies to take such steps.
For further information, please get in touch with Stefanie Geurts, supply chain researcher at Profundo, at s.geurts@profundo.nl
(Photo: Zenobillis on iStock)