A regional survey by the International Labour Organization highlights persistent gaps in decent working conditions for migrant workers in Asia’s fishing and seafood processing sectors. The report, “Towards Fair Seas: Recruitment and Working Conditions for Migrant Workers in the Fishing and Seafood Processing Sectors in South-East Asia,” provides a comprehensive assessment of living and working conditions, including the prevalence of forced labour. The study emphasizes the urgent need to ratify and fully implement international labour standards related to recruitment, fishing work, and forced labour to ensure legally binding protections for workers.
Produced under the European Union-funded ILO Ship to Shore Rights South-East Asia programme, the survey is the largest of its kind, expanding the data available on migrant workers in key origin countries—Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Viet Nam—and major destination countries including China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan (China), and Thailand. Findings reveal widespread challenges such as high recruitment costs, inadequate wage protection, long work hours, serious occupational injuries, restricted freedom of association, limited access to social protection, and significant risks of forced labour.
The study estimated that 13 percent of migrant workers in these sectors are in situations of forced labour, with migrant fishers particularly affected at a rate of 20 percent, compared with 0.4 percent of seafood processing workers. Forced labour is especially prevalent on distant water tuna fishing vessels, where excessive work hours and long periods at sea, combined with limited law enforcement in remote fishing grounds, heighten vulnerability to coercive practices.
While conditions are generally better in seafood processing, the report identifies ongoing labour rights gaps across the entire fish and seafood supply chain. Women migrant workers are particularly affected, performing low-paid, precarious, and often informal work with limited protections. Luisa Ragher, EU Ambassador to Thailand, emphasized that although adherence to international labour standards has improved, ensuring decent work for migrant workers remains a significant regional challenge.
The report recommends ratifying and fully implementing international labour standards for recruitment, fishing work, and forced labour, alongside guaranteeing migrants’ rights to form trade unions and bargain collectively. Decent work deficits reflect structural weaknesses in labour and migration governance across the region, and addressing these issues requires coordinated action by governments, employers, and workers to ensure accountability throughout the supply chain, according to Tuomo Poutiainen, ILO Deputy Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific.
Fishing, seafood processing, and related industries are critical for livelihoods along Asia’s coastlines. Globally, of the approximately 61.8 million people employed in fisheries and aquaculture, 52.7 million work in Asia, with the blue economy accounting for up to 20 percent of GDP in some countries. The Ship to Shore Rights South-East Asia initiative, funded by the EU and implemented by the ILO in partnership with the International Organization for Migration and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, aims to promote safe migration and decent work, addressing the vulnerabilities migrant workers face and mitigating risks of labour rights abuses throughout the fish and seafood supply chain.
