In recent years, as the export business has expanded, it has become more difficult to convince young Burmese or Cambodian migrants and impoverished Thais — all of whom were found on Benjina — to accept the dangerous jobs.
AP Investigation: Are slaves catching the fish you buy?
Associated Press | 25 March 2015
BENJINA, Indonesia (AP) — The
Burmese slaves sat on the floor and stared through the rusty bars of
their locked cage, hidden on a tiny tropical island thousands of miles
from home.
Just a few
yards away, other workers loaded cargo ships with slave-caught seafood
that clouds the supply networks of major supermarkets, restaurants and
even pet stores in the United States.
But the eight imprisoned men
were considered flight risks — laborers who might dare run away. They
lived on a few bites of rice and curry a day in a space barely big
enough to lie down, stuck until the next trawler forces them back to
sea.
"All I did was tell my
captain I couldn't take it anymore, that I wanted to go home," said Kyaw
Naing, his dark eyes pleading into an Associated Press video camera
sneaked in by a sympathetic worker. "The next time we docked," he said
nervously out of earshot of a nearby guard, "I was locked up."
Here, in the Indonesian island
village of Benjina and the surrounding waters, hundreds of trapped men
represent one of the most desperate links criss-crossing between
companies and countries in the seafood industry. This intricate web of
connections separates the fish we eat from the men who catch it, and
obscures a brutal truth: Your seafood may come from slaves.
The
men the AP interviewed on Benjina were mostly from Myanmar, also known
as Burma, one of the poorest countries in the world. They were brought
to Indonesia through Thailand and forced to fish. Their catch was then
shipped back to Thailand, where it entered the global stream of
commerce.
Tainted fish can wind up in the supply chains of some of America's major
grocery stores, such as Kroger, Albertsons and Safeway; the nation's
largest retailer, Wal-Mart; and the biggest food distributor, Sysco. It
can find its way into the supply chains of some of the most popular
brands of canned pet food, including Fancy Feast, Meow Mix and Iams. It
can turn up as calamari at fine dining restaurants, as imitation crab in
a California sushi roll or as packages of frozen snapper relabeled with
store brands that land on our dinner tables.
In a year-long investigation,
the AP talked to more than 40 current and former slaves in Benjina. The
AP documented the journey of a single large shipment of slave-caught
seafood from the Indonesian village, tracking it by satellite to a
gritty Thai harbor. Upon its arrival, AP journalists followed trucks
that loaded and drove the seafood over four nights to dozens of
factories, cold storage plants and the country's biggest fish market.
The
tainted seafood mixes in with other fish at a number of sites in
Thailand, including processing plants. U.S. Customs records show that
several of those Thai factories ship to America. They also sell to
Europe and Asia, but the AP traced shipments to the U.S., where trade
records are public.
By this time, it is nearly
impossible to tell where a specific fish caught by a slave ends up.
However, entire supply chains are muddied, and money is trickling down
the line to companies that benefit from slave labor.
The
major corporations contacted would not speak on the record but issued
statements that strongly condemned labor abuses. All said they were
taking steps to prevent forced labor, such as working with human rights
groups to hold subcontractors accountable.
Several independent
seafood distributors who did comment described the costly and exhaustive
steps taken to ensure their supplies are clean. They said the discovery
of slaves underscores how hard it is to monitor what goes on halfway
around the world.
Santa Monica Seafood, a large
independent importer that sells to restaurants, markets and direct from
its store, has been a leader in improving international fisheries, and
sends buyers around the world to inspect vendors.
"The
supply chain is quite cloudy, especially when it comes from offshore,"
said Logan Kock, vice president for responsible sourcing, who
acknowledged that the industry recognizes and is working to address the
problem. "Is it possible a little of this stuff is leaking through?
Yeah, it is possible. We are all aware of it."
The slaves interviewed by the AP
had no idea where the fish they caught was headed. They knew only that
it was so valuable, they were not allowed to eat it.
They
said the captains on their fishing boats forced them to drink unclean
water and work 20- to 22-hour shifts with no days off. Almost all said
they were kicked, whipped with toxic stingray tails or otherwise beaten
if they complained or tried to rest. They were paid little or nothing,
as they hauled in heavy nets with squid, shrimp, snapper, grouper and
other fish.
Some shouted for help over
the deck of their trawler in the port to reporters, as bright
fluorescent lights silhouetted their faces in the darkness.
"I
want to go home. We all do," one man called out in Burmese, a cry
repeated by others. The AP is not using the names of some men for their
safety. "Our parents haven't heard from us for a long time. I'm sure
they think we are dead."
Another glanced fearfully over
his shoulder toward the captain's quarters, and then yelled: "It's
torture. When we get beaten, we can't do anything back. ... I think our
lives are in the hands of the Lord of Death."
In the worst cases, numerous men reported maimings or even deaths on their boats.
"If
Americans and Europeans are eating this fish, they should remember us,"
said Hlaing Min, 30, a runaway slave from Benjina. "There must be a
mountain of bones under the sea. ... The bones of the people could be an
island, it's that many."
_______
For Burmese slaves, Benjina is the end of the world.
Roughly 3,500 people live in the
town that straddles two small islands separated by a five-minute boat
ride. Part of the Maluku chain, formerly known as the Spice Islands, the
area is about 400 miles north of Australia, and hosts small kangaroos
and rare birds of paradise with dazzling bright feathers.
Benjina
is impossible to reach by boat for several months of the year, when
monsoon rains churn the Arafura Sea. It is further cut off by a lack of
Internet access. Before a cell tower was finally installed last month,
villagers would climb nearby hills each evening in the hope of finding a
signal strong enough to send a text. An old landing strip has not been
used in years.
The small harbor is occupied by
Pusaka Benjina Resources, whose five-story office compound stands out
and includes the cage with the slaves. The company is the only fishing
operation on Benjina officially registered in Indonesia, and is listed
as the owner of more than 90 trawlers. However, the captains are Thai,
and the Indonesian government is reviewing to see if the boats are
really Thai-owned. Pusaka Benjina did not respond to phone calls and a
letter, and did not speak to a reporter who waited for two hours in the
company's Jakarta office.
On the dock in Benjina,
former slaves unload boats for food and pocket money. Many are men who
were abandoned by their captains — sometimes five, 10 or even 20 years
ago — and remain stranded.
In
the deeply forested island interiors, new runaways forage for food and
collect rainwater, living in constant fear of being found by hired slave
catchers.
And just off a beach covered in
sharp coral, a graveyard swallowed by the jungle entombs dozens of
fishermen. They are buried under fake Thai names given to them when they
were tricked or sold onto their ships, forever covering up evidence of
their captors' abuse, their friends say.
"I
always thought if there was an entrance there had to be an exit," said
Tun Lin Maung, a slave abandoned on Benjina, as other men nodded or
looked at the ground. "Now I know that's not true."
The
Arafura Sea provides some of the world's richest and most diverse
fishing grounds, teeming with mackerel, tuna, squid and many other
species.
Although it is Indonesian
territory, it draws many illegal fishing fleets, including from
Thailand. The trade that results affects the United States and other
countries.
The U.S. counts Thailand as one
of its top seafood suppliers, and buys about 20 percent of the country's
$7 billion annual exports in the industry. Last year, the State
Department blacklisted Thailand for failing to meet minimum standards in
fighting human trafficking, placing the country in the ranks of North
Korea, Syria and Iran. However, there were no additional sanctions.
Thailand's
seafood industry is largely run off the backs of migrant laborers, said
Kendra Krieder, a State Department analyst who focuses on supply
chains. The treatment of some of these workers falls under the U.S.
government's definition of slavery, which includes forcing people to
keep working even if they once signed up for the jobs, or trafficking
them into situations where they are exploited.
"In the most extreme cases,
you're talking about someone kidnapped or tricked into working on a
boat, physically beaten, chained," said Krieder. "These situations would
be called modern slavery by any measure."
The
Thai government says it is cleaning up the problem. On the bustling
floor of North America's largest seafood show in Boston earlier this
month, an official for the Department of Fisheries laid out a plan to
address labor abuse, including new laws that mandate wages, sick leave
and shifts of no more than 14 hours. However, Kamonpan Awaiwanont
stopped short when presented details about the men in Benjina.
"This is still happening now?" he asked. He paused. "We are trying to solve it. This is ongoing."
The Thai government also
promises a new national registry of illegal migrant workers, including
more than 100,000 flooding the seafood industry. However, policing has
now become even harder because decades of illegal fishing have depleted
stocks close to home, pushing the boats farther and deeper into foreign
waters.
The Indonesian
government has called a temporary ban on most fishing, aiming to clear
out foreign poachers who take billions of dollars of seafood from the
country's waters. As a result, more than 50 boats are now docked in
Benjina, leaving up to 1,000 more slaves stranded onshore and waiting to
see what will happen next.
Indonesian
officials are trying to enforce laws that ban cargo ships from picking
up fish from boats at sea. This practice forces men to stay on the water
for months or sometimes years at a time, essentially creating floating
prisons.
Susi Pudjiastuti,
the new Fisheries Minister, said she has heard of different fishing
companies putting men in cells. She added that she believes the trawlers
on Benjina may really have Thai owners, despite the Indonesian
paperwork, reflecting a common practice of faking or duplicating
licenses.
She said she is deeply disturbed about the abuse on Benjina and other islands.
"I'm
very sad. I lose my eating appetite. I lose my sleep," she said. "They
are building up an empire on slavery, on stealing, on fish(ing) out, on
massive environmental destruction for a plate of seafood."
_________
The
story of slavery in the Thai seafood industry started decades ago with
the same push-and-pull that shapes economic immigration worldwide — the
hope of escaping grinding poverty to find a better life somewhere else.
In
recent years, as the export business has expanded, it has become more
difficult to convince young Burmese or Cambodian migrants and
impoverished Thais — all of whom were found on Benjina — to accept the
dangerous jobs. Agents have become more desperate and ruthless,
recruiting children and the disabled, lying about wages and even
drugging and kidnapping migrants, according to a former broker who spoke
on condition of anonymity to avoid retribution.
The broker said agents then sell
the slaves, usually to Thai captains of fishing boats or the companies
that own them. Each slave typically costs around $1,000, according to
Patima Tungpuchayakul, manager of the Thai-based nonprofit Labor Rights
Promotion Network Foundation. The men are later told they have to work
off the "debt" with wages that don't come for months or years, or at
all.
"The employers are
probably more worried about the fish than the workers' lives," she said.
"They get a lot of money from this type of business."
Illegal
Thai boats are falsely registered to fish in Indonesia through graft,
sometimes with the help of government authorities. Praporn Ekouru, a
Thai former member of Parliament, admitted to the AP that he had bribed
Indonesian officials to go into their waters, and complained that the
Indonesian government's crackdown is hurting business.
"In the past, we sent Thai boats
to fish in Indonesian waters by changing their flags," said Praporn,
who is also chairman of the Songkhla Fisheries Association in southern
Thailand. "We had to pay bribes of millions of baht per year, or about
200,000 baht ($6,100) per month. ... The officials are not receiving
money anymore because this order came from the government."
Illegal
workers are given false documents, because Thai boats cannot hire
undocumented crew. One of the slaves in Benjina, Maung Soe, said he was
given a fake seafarer book belonging to a Thai national, accepted in
Indonesia as an informal travel permit. He rushed back to his boat to
dig up a crinkled copy.
"That's not my name, not
my signature," he said angrily, pointing at the worn piece of paper.
"The only thing on here that is real is my photograph."
Soe
said he had agreed to work on a fishing boat only if it stayed in Thai
waters, because he had heard Indonesia was a place from which workers
never came back.
"They tricked me," he said.
"They lied to me. ... They created fake papers and put me on the boat,
and now here I am in Indonesia."
The
slaves said the level of abuse on the fishing boats depends on
individual captains and assistants. Aung Naing Win, who left a wife and
two children behind in Myanmar two years ago, said some fishermen were
so depressed that they simply threw themselves into the water. Win, 40,
said his most painful task was working without proper clothing in the
ship's giant freezer, where temperatures drop to 39 degrees below zero.
"It was so cold, our hands were burning," he said. "No one really cared if anyone died."
________
The
shipment the AP tracked from the port of Benjina carried fish from
smaller trawlers; AP journalists talked to slaves on more than a dozen
of them.
A crane hoisted the
seafood onto a refrigerated cargo ship called the Silver Sea Line, with
an immense hold as big as 50 semi-trucks. At this point, by United
Nations and U.S. standards, every fish in that hold is considered
associated with slavery.
The
ship belongs to the Silver Sea Reefer Co., which is registered in
Thailand and has at least nine refrigerated cargo boats. The company
said it is not involved with the fishermen.
"We
only carry the shipment and we are hired in general by clients," said
owner Panya Luangsomboon. "We're separated from the fishing boats."
The AP followed the Silver Sea
Line by satellite over 15 days to Samut Sakhon. When it arrived, workers
on the dock packed the seafood over four nights onto more than 150
trucks, which then delivered their loads around the city.
One
truck bore the name and bird logo of Kingfisher Holdings Ltd., which
supplies frozen and canned seafood around the world. Another truck went
to Mahachai Marine Foods Co., a cold storage business that also
supplies to Kingfisher and other exporters, according to Kawin
Ngernanek, whose family runs it.
"Yes,
yes, yes, yes," said Kawin, who also serves as spokesman for the Thai
Overseas Fisheries Association. "Kingfisher buys several types of
products."
When asked about abusive labor
practices, Kingfisher did not answer repeated requests for comment.
Mahachai manager Narongdet Prasertsri responded, "I have no idea about
it at all."
Every month,
Kingfisher and its subsidiary KF Foods Ltd. sends about 100 metric tons
of seafood from Thailand to America, according to U.S. Customs Bills of
Lading. These shipments have gone to Santa Monica Seafood, Stavis
Seafoods — located on Boston's historic Fish Pier — and other
distributors.
Richard Stavis, whose
grandfather started the dealership in 1929, shook his head when told
about the slaves whose catch may end up at businesses he buys from. He
said his company visits processors and fisheries, requires notarized
certification of legal practices and uses third-party audits.
"The truth is, these are the
kind of things that keep you up at night," he said. "That's the sort of
thing I want to stop. ... There are companies like ours that care and
are working as hard as they can."
Wholesalers
like Stavis sell packages of fish, branded and unbranded, that can end
up on supermarket shelves with a private label or house brand. Stavis'
customers also include Sysco, the largest food distributor in the U.S.;
there is no clear way to know which particular fish was sold to them.
Sysco
declined an interview, but the company's code of conduct says it "will
not knowingly work with any supplier that uses forced, bonded,
indentured or slave labor."
Gavin
Gibbons, a spokesman for National Fisheries Institute, which represents
about 75 percent of the U.S. seafood industry, said the reports of
abuse were "disturbing" and "disheartening." ''But these type of things
flourish in the shadows," he said.
A similar pattern repeats itself
with other shipments and other companies, as the supply chain splinters
off in many directions in Samut Sakhon. It is in this Thai port that
slave-caught seafood starts to lose its history.
The
AP followed another truck to Niwat Co., which sells to Thai Union
Manufacturing Co., according to part owner Prasert Luangsomboon. Weeks
later, when confronted about forced labor in their supply chain, Niwat
referred several requests for comment to Luangsomboon, who could not be
reached for further comment.
Thai
Union Manufacturing is a subsidiary of Thai Union Frozen Products PCL.,
the country's largest seafood corporation, with $3.5 billion in annual
sales. This parent company, known simply as Thai Union, owns Chicken of
the Sea and is buying Bumble Bee, although the AP did not observe any
tuna fisheries. In September, it became the country's first business to
be certified by Dow Jones for sustainable practices, after meeting
environmental and social reviews.
Thai Union said it condemns
human rights violations, but multiple stakeholders must be part of the
solution. "We all have to admit that it is difficult to ensure the Thai
seafood industry's supply chain is 100 percent clean," CEO Thiraphong
Chansiri said in an emailed statement.
Thai
Union ships thousands of cans of cat food to the U.S., including
household brands like Fancy Feast, Meow Mix and Iams. These end up on
shelves of major grocery chains, such as Kroger, Safeway and Albertsons,
as well as pet stores; again, however, it's impossible to tell if a
particular can of cat food might have slave-caught fish.
Thai Union says its direct
clients include Wal-Mart, which declined an interview but said in an
email statement: "We care about the men and women in our supply chain,
and we are concerned about the ethical recruitment of workers."
Wal-Mart described its work with
several non-profits to end forced labor in Thailand, including Project
Issara, and referred the AP to Lisa Rende Taylor, its director. She
noted that slave-caught seafood can slip into supply chains undetected
at several points, such as when it is traded between boats or mingles
with clean fish at processing plants. She also confirmed that seafood
sold at the Talay Thai market — to where the AP followed several trucks —
can enter international supply chains.
"Transactions
throughout Thai seafood supply chains are often not well-documented,
making it difficult to estimate exactly how much seafood available on
supermarket shelves around the world is tainted by human trafficking and
forced labor," she said.
Poj
Aramwattananont, president of an industry group that represents Thai
Union, Kingfisher and others, said Thais are not "jungle people" and
know that human trafficking is wrong. However, he acknowledged that Thai
companies cannot always track down the origins of their fish.
"We
don't know where the fish come from when we buy from Indonesia," said
Poj of the Thai Frozen Foods Association. "We have no record. We don't
know if that fish is good or bad."
______
The
seafood the slaves on Benjina catch may travel around the world, but
their own lives often end right here, in this island village.
A
crude cemetery holds more than graves strangled by tall grasses and
jungle vines, where small wooden markers are neatly labelled, some with
the falsified names of slaves and boats. Only their friends remember
where they were laid to rest.
In
the past, former slave Hla Phyo said, supervisors on ships simply
tossed bodies into the sea to be devoured by sharks. But after
authorities and companies started demanding that every man be accounted
for on the roster upon return, captains began stowing corpses alongside
the fish in ship freezers until they arrived back in Benjina, the slaves
said.
Lifting his knees as he stepped
over the thick brush, Phyo searched for two grave markers overrun by
weeds — friends he helped bury.
It's been five years since
he himself escaped the sea and struggled to survive on the island.
Every night, his mind drifts back to his mother in Myanmar. He knows she
must be getting old now, and he desperately wants to return to her.
Standing among so many anonymous tombs stacked on top of each other,
hopelessness overwhelms him.
"I'm
starting to feel like I will be in Indonesia forever," he said, wiping a
tear away. "I remember thinking when I was digging, the only thing that
awaits us here is death."
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