“They called us soccer balls, meaning that we were under their feet and could be kicked anywhere”
“They were beaten until their arms and legs were broken”
Over the last year, a series of shocking stories have come to light that expose the true cost of the tuna we consume. The hard truth is that our seafood is often the product of human trafficking and enslavement. But what gets me is that the very company that should be leading the way in fighting bad behaviour - the world’s largest seafood company, Thai Union, is embroiled in the scandal. It bothers me - and thousands of Greenpeace supporters - that cans filled with their tainted tuna end up on our supermarket shelves, in tins of John West.
Of course, negative impacts of the fishing industry are nothing new. Every single day our oceans and the creatures in them are threatened by destructive fishing and at Greenpeace, we’ve been fighting these threats for decades. But increasingly we are seeing harm caused to more than just our oceans, we’re seeing piles of evidence showing the abuse and enslavement of people.
It’s time to shine a light on this - so we’ve released interviews carried out with fishers who’ve worked in the Thai seafood industry. Lots of them have depressingly similar stories, they were usually encouraged to leave their families and cross the border to Thailand on the promise of a well paying job to support their family. For others, the situation is even more extreme, they were sold against their will and prevented from going home at gunpoint.
Brought into Thailand illegally, if they disobey the people who trafficked them, they are threatened with arrest and imprisonment. Many see no choice but to accept their fate and they remain on the ships for years on end.
Once they get to the ships, one recent ILO study showed that:
- 80% of fishers never feel free
- Over 50% see their “broker” (the middlemen who’ve trafficked them to Thailand) harm someone
- Almost a quarter are forcibly confined or imprisoned
- ⅔ had experience sexual violence
- 6% report being force fed drugs to make them work harder
So what can we do? Certainly something. In the UK we consume more than 400,000 tonnes of fish per year and there’s no doubt that our desire for cheap tuna has helped cause the environmental degradation and human rights abuses we see in the seafood industry today.
Overfishing means that Thai fishing vessels are finding less and less fish. Unsurprisingly then, fishers in Thailand are under pressure to produce more and they’re turning to dodgy practices to do that.
With a huge shortage of workers in the industry, to get more tuna, they need more hands on deck. Industry experts estimate that there needs to be another 50,000 tuna workers working on vessels. For some vessel operators, the immoral solution to this shortage of workers has been to force people into the tuna fishing against their will.
But this isn’t just a problem related to overfishing or a lack of workers, this is fundamentally about a hunger for profit - not just for everyday fishers but for the big companies who buy their catch. The Guardian reported that the slavery industry is so lucrative that some Thai fishers are converting their ships for carrying people, not fish. Meanwhile, seafood companies like Thai Union are making billions every year. They’ve got all the money they need to enact change - to be a world leading brand in fact - yet they refuse to do so.
It’s a simple solution. If tuna companies stop paying for fish tainted by human trafficking and abuse, fishing vessels with these practices will become unprofitable. To save the freedom, dignity - and lives - of generations of fishers, Greenpeace are calling on Thai Union to stop buying from fisheries where labour or human rights abuses are present.
With John West in the UK owned by Thai Union, we undoubtedly have the power drive this change. Since our campaign began almost 100,000 people have pledged to stop buying John West tuna, 50,000 people have sent direct messages to Thai Union and John West, meanwhile John West seems to be permanently at half price to desperately try and entice us.
But we're not easily enticed. We have already forced the biggest tuna brands to fish sustainably - forcing Tesco, Asda and Aldi to make major changes to their tuna. I've no doubt that together we can make sure Thai Union are next to do the right thing. Please stand with Thai fishers today by joining our campaign.
Click here to sign the pledge & Email John West & Thai Union
Click here to write on John West's Facebook page
Click here to tweet your #NotJohnWest sandwich and let them know their behaviour is bad for business
