Illegal Fishing, Child Labor Reported in
Vietnamese Fishing Fleet
BY THE
MARITIME EXECUTIVE
18/11/2019
Fish populations
in Vietnam’s waters are so low boats are forced to fish illegally elsewhere to
make a living, Vietnamese captains and crew told the Environmental Justice
Foundation (EJF).
Although new laws
to prevent illegal fishing were enacted in Vietnam in 2018, EJF investigations a
year later revealed that they are still not being implemented. A new EJF report
also reveals that children as young as 11 are being put to work in dirty and
unsafe conditions aboard long-distance fishing vessels. Gross overfishing, poor
governance and a shocking lack of transparency have created this human and
ecological tragedy, says EJF.
Vietnam has one of the fastest growing fishing fleets in the world – increasing
in size by over 160 percent between 1990 and 2018. This explosion in the number
of fishing vessels has led to massive over-fishing and rapid depletion of fish
populations.
EJF’s new report details findings from surveying 239 crew from 41 Vietnamese
fishing vessels that had been detained while fishing in Thai waters and in-depth
interviews with 45 crew from 20 vessels. The men interviewed were being held in
Thailand after being caught fishing illegally in Thai waters.
The report shows that this crisis in Vietnam’s fisheries has been exported, as
fishing vessels increasingly venture beyond Vietnam’s waters in search of fresh
populations. Vessel captains spoke of how they were often encouraged by owners
to fish in neighboring countries’ waters and would openly discuss their upcoming
trips to Thailand among the crew.
“We knew before even leaving the pier that we would have to go to Thailand to
catch fish,” said a Vietnamese boat owner and captain who was interviewed in
January 2018.
This rampant illegal fishing is being facilitated by child labor. EJF found that
seven out of the 41 vessels studied had a child aboard – some as young as 11.
This is despite clear Vietnamese law that forbids any form of child labor aboard
long-distance fishing boats.
Vessels continue to lack appropriate markings and national flags while fishing.
Key documents, including crew manifests, are still not carried on board – in
direct violation of Vietnam’s revised regulations.
Vessel inspections on departure and arrival into port appear to amount to
nothing more than a cursory document check and crew count. Such superficial
investigations, without identification cards or passport verification, allows
human rights abuse such as child labor to go unchecked. It also allows
unauthorized crew transfers at sea, putting workers at risk of being trapped and
enslaved, as they are rotated between vessels with little or no chance of
escape.
The report also
identified a lack of any semblance of catch documentation or verification
system, which makes it extremely difficult to determine the origins of the
seafood. None of the fishers that EJF spoke to had ever used logbooks to
document the fish they caught, potentially allowing seafood to be laundered into
international supply chains.
This could mean that illegal seafood caught by slaves and children is on
supermarket shelves across the E.U. and U.S.
Overall, EJF says
that few of the European Commission’s recommendations for reforming Vietnam’s
fisheries have been successfully implemented or enforced. This put the country
at risk of a ‘red card’: a complete ban on seafood exports to the E.U.
The report is
available here.