18-hour days, 18 months at sea
Homemade tuna brands have been accused of using suppliers who receive fish caught in slave-like conditions, including workers enduring up to 18-hour days at sea for months.
A new report by the Uniting Church and Greenpeace, based on interviews with 25 Indonesian fishermen and supply chain mapping, says some tuna from ships with harsh working conditions will end up in products from companies such as Sirena and Safcol.
Canned tuna and other seafood companies have publicized efforts in recent years to cut ties with problem suppliers or force them to improve their practices, but evidence shows forced labor on fishing vessels remains widespread abroad.
The report, written by environmental activist group Greenpeace and commissioned by the United Church’s Victoria and Tasmania synod, found signs of forced labor on 17 Indonesian boats, based on interviews with crew members. Then, as a preliminary step in obtaining a sustainability certificate, he used the databases provided by the companies to track which companies these ships delivered their catch to. From there, the report’s authors analyzed international trade data alongside federal government documents accessed through Freedom of Information laws to examine which Australian entities were most likely to import tuna from Indonesian processing companies.
But the report cannot track individual tuna shipments, and the report’s authors acknowledge that ships are often owned through complex networks of subsidiaries and the catch is mixed in port.
In response to the allegations, Sirena, who was named in the report, said there were “fundamental flaws in the allegations presented in the report” but did not identify the errors he said existed. Iconic Food Distribution, owner of Sirena, noted the initiatives and policies the company has implemented in recent years to eliminate forced labor from its supply chain.
Another named company, Safcol, said it received “very small” amounts of tuna from Indonesian processors and that none of those processors’ products came from the ships named in a letter to the company from Greenpeace. “We do not accept tuna from ships that use slave labor. We monitor our raw materials strictly and in detail,” Safcol said.
Allegations of forced labor have led to calls from advocacy groups to make public full details of import records to increase transparency about where fish comes from. This comes just days after Australia’s Anti-Slavery Commissioner Chris Evans It called for a due diligence system that would force companies to act on risks, and within the federal government review of the country’s Modern Slavery Act.
This imprint does not suggest that brands selling in Australia use forced labour; instead, the researchers argue, there are indications that such practices continue in the industry despite the efforts of retail tuna brands. There is also no suggestion that the workers depicted in this story were victims of forced labor.
Examples of indicators of forced labor on tuna vessels include 15- or 18-hour shifts, often without adequate rest, legal pay, or access to communications; and workers claim to have been at sea for 10 to 18 months without port visits.
“Tuna products are artificially cheap and companies enjoy higher profit margins. Instead of increasing accountability, many actors in the seafood industry are shifting their risks and responsibilities up the supply chain,” the report says.
Greenpeace and the church want the Australian government to mandate full traceability of tuna products and ensure such information is publicly available, as well as ban seafood products linked to labor exploitation from entering the Australian market. They also want the Indonesian government to implement stricter policies and suggest that bilateral trade agreements could encapsulate such a demand.
“Unless both Indonesian and Australian regulators enact and enforce binding due diligence and labor protections, the true cost of tuna will continue to be borne by Indonesian fishermen at the bottom of the chain, trapped in debt and disenfranchised,” the groups said.
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Elias Visontay is the National Consumer Affairs Reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.
