A new report from the Environmental Justice Foundation Charitable Trust (a UK registered charity that believes we all have a basic human right to a safe natural environment) has revealed illegal fishing operations by a Chinese ship off the coast of West Africa, as well as human rights violations among its crew.
Titled, “The Ever-widening Net: Mapping The Scale, Nature And Corporate Structures Of Illegal, Unreported And Unregulated Fishing By The Chinese Distant-water Fleet”, the report has presents a comprehensive analysis of China’s vast, opaque and, at times illegal global fisheries footprint, with the specific aim of informing appropriate and effective responses by fisheries decision-makers in China and globally.
The report says, “Driven by the depletion of fish populations in its own national waters and its role as a key processing and exporting state, the Government of the People’s
Republic of China has supported the rapid expansion of the scale and technological capacity of its distant water fishing fleet, i.e. vessels operating beyond its exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Today, China has by far the largest of such fleets, operating across the globe in
both areas beyond national jurisdiction and in the EEZs
of coastal states.
Published on 30th of March, 2022, the burgeoning body of research that has explored the extent and behaviours of the Chinese distant-water fleet (CDWF) has unveiled the widespread, and harmful,
economic, environmental and human consequences linked to overcapacity, high instances of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, destructive practises such as bottom trawling and the use of forced, bonded and slave labour and trafficked crew, alongside
the widespread abuse of migrant crew members.
“The CDWF has become a major operator in many developing countries. IUU fishing is particularly prevalent in these regions, augmenting the suffering
and vulnerability of many coastal communities.”
The report notes that, “IUU fishing is facilitated by factors such as a lack of transparency and the opacity of seafood supply chains, limited monitoring, control, and surveillance (MCS) capacity, poor governance and corruption. In recent years, EJF has identified continuous instances of IUU fishing and human rights abuses associated with the CDWF in West Africa, especially Ghana, where Chinese companies use elaborate schemes to hide the ultimate beneficial ownership of their so-called Ghanaian domestic vessels. These schemes include joint ventures, shell companies and subsidiaries.”
Meanwhile, interviews conducted by EJF with 116 Indonesian crew members who have worked on vessels belonging to the CDWF indicate that 99% have experienced or witnessed wages being deducted or withheld, 97% have experienced some form of debt bondage/confiscation of guarantee money and documents, 89% have
worked excessive overtime, 85% reported abusive working and living conditions, 70% experienced intimidation and threats, and 58% have seen or experienced physical violence. These findings have been echoed in EJF interviews with Ghanaian crew on board CDWF vessels in Ghanaian waters. All 10 crew interviewed had experienced or witnessed physical abuse by Chinese captains, and similarly all 10 reported poor living conditions on the vessels they operated on, including being forced to eat low nutrition food and consume poor quality water – often resulting in sickness and diarrhoea.
Similarly, this report presents a comprehensive analysis of
China’s vast, opaque and, at times illegal global fisheries footprint, with the specific aim of informing
appropriate and effective responses by fisheries decision-makers in China and globally. In large parts,
it focuses specifically on IUU fishing and associated crimes such as human rights abuses. The CDWF has been chosen as the focus of the study given its size and global reach, the opacity of its operations, and its
significant presence within countries in the Global South, where some fish populations are over-exploited to the detriment of coastal communities who rely heavily on healthy marine ecosystems.
The findings of this global review further build on EJF’s field based investigations, which have identified a wide range of IUU fishing offences, such as shark finning and fishing in restricted areas, as well as human rights abuses such as physical violence, debt bondage and confiscation of passports. Illegal fishing, environmental and human rights abuses, together with the failures of governance documented in this report, present a case of profound environmental injustice. These findings highlight the overarching failure of the Chinese government to effectively control and regulate its DWF. This is the latest in the long line of instances in which wealthier nations have externalised the costs of their operations – degrading the natural resources of nations and communities whose contribution to global environmental degradation is
comparatively negligible.
The adoption of transparency measures from the EJF charter for transparency, bilateral and multilateral dialogues with China to end abuses, and the rapid phasing out of all subsidies to the CDWF, ensuring a complete cessation of harmful subsidies no later than December 2023 are among the recommendations made in this report.
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