Untangling Jurisdictional Complexities for Crew Labour Regulations on Fishing Vessels in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean

What is it about?

From catching the fish to selling the fish, many different states are involved, which increased the risk of labour abuses on fishing vessels. Furthermore, the involvement of these states and their different agencies, makes it difficult to develop a comprehensive approach to reducing labour abuse. While one global agreement exists, not a lot of states have signed it, thus, their national employment and fisheries regulations are important. This article showed, that key coastal and flag states fishing in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean for tuna, have labour regulations in place. However, these regulations are enforced by different government agencies. Furthermore, the state where the majority of the crew comes from does not have a lot of influence to enforce regulations for better working conditions. Other states, such as port and market states, have more influence and can hinder the distribution of fish caught with forced labour or under poor working conditions. While most of the assessed countries have employment regulations in place, more work is needed to make them more effective.

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