A regional survey conducted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) highlights persistent challenges faced by migrant workers in Asia’s fishing and seafood processing industries, emphasizing the urgent need to ratify and implement international labour standards on recruitment, work in fishing, and forced labour. The study, titled “Towards fair seas: Recruitment and working conditions for migrant workers in the fishing and seafood processing sectors in South-East Asia,” provides the most comprehensive assessment to date of the working and living conditions of migrant workers across major origin countries—Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Viet Nam—and key destination countries, including China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan (China), and Thailand.
The findings reveal widespread gaps in decent work, including excessive recruitment costs, inadequate wage protection, long working hours, serious occupational injuries, barriers to freedom of association, limited access to social protection, and significant concerns regarding forced labour. Applying the ILO methodology for measuring forced labour, the survey estimates that 13 percent of migrant workers in these sectors experience forced labour conditions, with fishers facing higher vulnerability (20 percent) compared to seafood processing workers (0.4 percent).
The survey draws attention to the particularly high risk of coercive labour practices on distant water tuna fishing vessels, where extended periods at sea and remote fishing grounds limit law enforcement and increase worker vulnerability. While labour conditions in seafood processing are generally better, improvements are still needed, especially for women migrant workers, who often occupy low-paid, precarious, and informalized roles along the seafood supply chain.
The report stresses the importance of ratifying and fully implementing international labour standards, ensuring that migrant workers can exercise fundamental rights such as forming trade unions and collectively bargaining for better wages and working conditions. Coordinated action by governments, employers, and workers is necessary to address structural weaknesses in labour and migration governance and to ensure accountability across the entire supply chain.
Fishing and seafood processing remain critical sources of livelihood along Asia’s coastlines, with the region accounting for the majority of global fisheries and aquaculture employment. The ILO’s Ship to Shore Rights South-East Asia initiative, funded by the European Union and implemented with the International Organization for Migration and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, aims to promote safe migration and decent work in these sectors, addressing vulnerabilities and supporting sustainable, rights-based labour practices throughout the blue economy.
