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Introduction
The staggering scale of modern slavery — slavery, servitude, and debt bondage —inhumane treatment, and human trafficking has been well documented. In 2022, the International Labor Organization estimated that roughly 28 million people victims of “forced labour” — labour coerced under threat — with 128,000 people trapped in force labor on fishing vessels around the world. Moreover, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reports that human trafficking and the use of forced labor are “closely linked” to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and the depletion of fish stocks. As fishers continue to deplete fish stocks — more than 34% of stocks are now fished at unsustainable levels — vessels and their crew stay at sea for longer periods in order to remain profitable. Some tuna longliners, for example, stay at sea for months or even years when aided by at-sea transhipment. As fishing voyages lengthen and fuel costs unavoidably rise, vessel owners and operators reduce or eliminate other costs by denying crew members their fundamental rights concerning the terms and conditions of their labour, including those concerning wages, safety standards, and other living and working conditions. In fact, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports that many fishers are traded from vessel to vessel and, because they cannot escape, are “de facto prisoners.”