EU debates harsh working conditions for fishers: ‘I had no other choice’
European Parliament debate highlights risks faced by fishers at sea
Poinews.com – Fishing industry workers can face extreme hours, unsafe conditions and labour exploitation far from public view, participants heard during a European Parliament discussion on 30 September. The debate, titled “Boosting the social dimension of sustainable fisheries”, brought together survivors, labour groups, international bodies and representatives of the seafood sector to examine how protections can be made more meaningful in practice.
One of the most personal accounts came from Fredi Seprizal, an Indonesian sailor who described 16 months aboard a Chinese fishing vessel as a period of “modern slavery”. He told MEPs that he regularly worked 16 to 20 hours daily and sometimes remained on duty for a full 24 hours. Rest could be limited to between three and six hours.
“The food was in very poor condition and I could only drink seawater that had been filtered. I had no other choice, it was never properly clean,”
Seprizal said inadequate safety equipment added to the danger of life offshore, leaving him fearful while at sea. His testimony underlined how isolated crew members may be when employers fail to respect basic employment and safety safeguards.
Calls for labour rights to be part of sustainable fishing
The event was organised by Carmen Crespo of the European People’s Party, who chairs the European Parliament’s Committee on Fisheries, and Virginia Battu-Henriksson from the cabinet of Fisheries and Oceans Commissioner Costas Kadis. Its focus extended beyond environmental sustainability to the people whose work supplies fish to international markets.
Crespo argued that European competitiveness should not rest on weaker rules or lower expectations for workers.
“Europe cannot compete by lowering its standards, but by turning them into its greatest asset,”
She said the European fleet must uphold its requirements on sustainability, safety and labour rights. In her view, defending a viable fisheries sector also means protecting crews from unfair competition and ensuring supply chains are transparent, responsible and free from exploitation.
The discussion raised a central question for consumers and policymakers: sustainability cannot be measured only through fishing practices or stock management when the people on vessels may be exposed to coercion, unpaid wages or dangerous working arrangements. Labour conditions, recruitment practices and access to effective complaints procedures are all part of the wider picture.
Research points to widespread wage and contract problems
Evidence presented at the meeting added weight to the concerns expressed by survivors. Sallie Yea, a professor and researcher at Charles Sturt University, shared findings drawn from interviews with 121 fishers and 32 relatives in the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia and Fiji.
Her research found that 94% of interviewed fishers had experienced wage non-payment at some point. Every fisher included in the study had also seen their contract changed to terms that were less favourable. The findings point to the vulnerability of workers who may accept a job under one set of conditions, only to encounter different arrangements after joining a vessel.
The safety picture was equally troubling. One in four fishers interviewed had seen a fellow crew member die, while deaths were recorded on one in four of the vessels examined. Such figures illustrate why written commitments and formal rules must be matched by regular oversight and ways for workers to seek help without risking retaliation.
“We need to move from purely formal compliance to the effective protection of labour rights, including checks on contracts and wages, arbitration mechanisms to resolve labour complaints, protection against reprisals and accountability mechanisms for recruitment agencies, and not only for fishing fleets and seafood companies,”
Yea’s message was that responsibility should not stop with vessel operators or seafood businesses. Recruitment agencies can play a decisive role in workers’ journeys into fishing jobs, including the handling of contracts and documents.
Existing rules and the push for stronger enforcement
Representatives of the International Labour Organization, the European Transport Workers’ Federation, the Environmental Justice Foundation and Oxfam used the Fisheries Committee round table to call for tougher enforcement of labour standards.
Tariq Haq, an economist with the International Labour Organization, noted that the Work in Fishing Convention sets minimum requirements for employment aboard fishing vessels. Yet it has been ratified by just 27 member states, limiting the reach of a framework intended to establish baseline protections for fishers.
The European Union also has a forced-labour regulation that will be introduced in stages through December 2027. The upcoming implementation period creates an opportunity to assess how EU market rules can help prevent products connected to forced labour from reaching consumers.
The Organisation of Associated Producers of Large Frozen Tuna Vessels, known as OPAGAC, helped promote the discussion with Hands for the Oceans. It argued that products entering the European market should meet the same standards imposed on the European fleet. Julio Morón, OPAGAC’s director-general, said EU due-diligence and forced-labour rules could mark a decisive change.
“We hope that the EU rules on due diligence and forced labour can become a turning point,”
The aim, Morón said, is to ensure European consumers are not eating fish produced through forced labour or modern slavery.
For Seprizal, the consequences of exploitation were not abstract. He told the debate that desperation had led him to contemplate dangerous escape options, while the captain retained his documents.
“The thought of jumping off the ship or setting it on fire crossed my mind; but I could not escape because the captain kept hold of my documents. I even had to pay to get them back.”
His experience reinforced the debate’s broader conclusion: protecting fishers requires more than standards on paper. It requires enforceable contracts, payment safeguards, safe vessels, accountable recruiters and market rules that do not reward exploitation.
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