Household tuna brands have been accused of using suppliers that received fish caught under slave-like conditions, including workers enduring work days up to 18 hours long at sea for months on end.
A new report released by the Uniting Church and Greenpeace, based on interviews with 25 Indonesian fishermen and supply chain mapping, says some tuna from vessels with dire labour conditions is likely to be ending up in the products of companies including Sirena and Safcol.
Canned tuna and other seafood companies have made public their efforts in recent years to sever ties with problematic suppliers or push them to improve their practices but evidence suggests forced labour on fishing vessels remains prevalent overseas.
The report, authored by environmental activist group Greenpeace and commissioned by the Uniting Church’s synod of Victoria and Tasmania, found indications of forced labour on 17 Indonesian boats, based on interviews with crew members. It then tracked which companies those vessels deliver their catch to, using databases that firms give information to as a preliminary step to gaining sustainability certification. From there, the report’s authors analysed international trading data in combination with federal government documents accessed via Freedom of Information laws to examine which Australian entities were likely to be importing tuna from the Indonesian processing companies.
But the report could not track individual shipments of tuna, and its authors acknowledge that ships were often owned via complex networks of subsidiaries and that they mixed their catches at port.
In response to the claims, Sirena, which was named in the report, said there were “fundamental flaws in the claims being represented in the report”, but it did not identify the errors it says exist. Iconic Food Distribution, Sirena’s owner, pointed to initiatives and policies that the company has introduced in recent years to weed out forced labour from its supply chain.
Safcol, another company named, said it received a “very small” amount of tuna from Indonesian processors, and these processors say none of their product comes from the vessels mentioned in a letter Greenpeace addressed to the company. “We do not accept tuna from vessels that use slave labour. We have strict and detailed batch tracking of our raw materials,” Safcol said.
The alleged indications of forced labour have prompted calls from the advocacy groups to make public all details in importation records to boost transparency about where fish is sourced. It comes days after Australia’s Anti-Slavery commissioner Chris Evans called for a due diligence system to compel companies to act on risks, and amid a federal government review of the nation’s Modern Slavery Act.
This masthead does not suggest the brands selling in Australia are engaging forced labour but rather that the researchers alleged there were indications such practices continue to persist in the industry despite efforts from retail tuna brands. There is also no suggestion the workers pictured in this story are victims of forced labour.
Examples of forced labour indicators in the tuna vessels include claims of shifts of 15 or 18 hours long, often without proper rest, legal pay, or access to communication; as well as workers claiming they were out at sea for 10 to 18 months without a port visit.
The report says: “Tuna products are artificially cheap, and companies enjoy bigger profit margins. Instead of improving accountability, many seafood business actors shift their risks and responsibility up the supply chain.”
Greenpeace and the church want the Australian government to mandate full traceability of tuna products and to make such information publicly accessible, as well as to introduce a prohibition on seafood products linked to labour exploitations from entering the Australian market. They also want the Indonesian government to enforce more stringent policies, and suggested bilateral trade agreements could outline such a demand.
“Unless both Indonesian and Australian regulators enact and enforce binding due diligence and labour protections, the true cost of tuna will continue to be borne by those at the very bottom of the chain, which are the Indonesian fishers trapped in debt and stripped of their rights,” the groups said.
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Elias Visontay is a National Consumer Affairs Reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.
