Dangerous working conditions and labor abuses in commercial fishing are common around the world. But enforcement actions to protect fishers are not. So the decision by the South African government on 3 August 2022 to detain a Taiwanese-flagged vessel with a largely Indonesian and Filipino crew aboard is news. The government’s detention order noted likely violations of safety and health standards and problems with fishers’ pay and contracts.
The inspection and detention of the fishing vessel by the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) in Durban came within just days of a labor inspection workshop led by the International Labour Organization in collaboration with Cornell ILR School’s New Conversations Project in Cape Town. The South African government detained the foreign-flagged fishing vessel based on a tip from a labor rights organization over concerns regarding worker safety – its first such action in nearly five years.
“It’s no exaggeration to say that shoppers pay more attention to the fish than the fishers,” says Jason Judd, executive director of the New Conversations Project. And although trade policy in the U.S. and the ‘ethical trade’ codes of seafood retailers protect fishers from forced labor, for example, they’re not effectively enforced. So it’s good to see the South African government putting to use what the ILO and Cornell are teaching, and good to see SAMSA acting on reports of labor abuses on fishing vessels.”
The four-day training brought together roughly 50 individuals that work in South African government agencies that are connected to the fishing industry – including labor, maritime safety, and immigration – and unions and worker rights organizations.
The workshop used the ILO’s Work in Fishing ILO Convention, 2007 (No. 188) and SAMSA’s inspection protocols to shore up detection of labor violations under South African law.