On January 28, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) banned the importation of seafood produced the the Vanuatu-flagged longliner Da Wang.
Commenting on the ban CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said that “CBP is entering the new year with a renewed commitment to investigating and enforcing the U.S. prohibition against importing goods made with forced labor.”
Effective immediately, CBP units at all U.S. ports of entry will seize any seafood harvested by the Da Wang. The order is tied to the vessel itself and does not mention products from Yong Feng Fishery’s other operations.
Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency (NIA) has also decided that at least one of the fishermen employed aboard Da Wang was a victim of human trafficking.
Da Wang was among several vessels flagged in a Greenpeace report about forced labor and human trafficking in early 2020.
The NGO’s correspondents identified many of the ILO signs of forced labor on board, such as deception, violence, withholding of wages, abusive working conditions and excessive overtime.
Another ship mentioned in the same Greenpeace report was the Taiwan-flagged Lien Yi Hsing No. 12, which has also seen its catch banned by CBP, along with the vessels Tunago No. 61 and Yu Long No. 2.
Addressing the bans by CBP, Greenpeace noted that:
There are legal, financial, and reputational risks to sourcing from companies that fail to uphold their human rights responsibilities to fishers. Bold, transformative changes are needed now to prevent future penalties that further disrupt the supply of tuna to U.S. retailers
Recently, twenty-five global NGOs united to affirm their stance against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in an official letter to Secretary John Kerry, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.
The signatories urged Mr Kerry to realign the US government’s efforts to oppose IUU fishing ahead of the Our Ocean Conference 2022 in April.
Signed by leaders of conservation, human rights, and labour rights organisations, the letter establishes a link between IUU fishing, forced labour, and human rights abuses at sea and in seafood supply chains.