Global daily news 28.04.2014

***Rough trade, rough men

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The deep sea fishing industry inflicts appalling conditions on some of its workers

SLAVERY has been in the news lately. It is referred to as “modern” slavery, clearly to distinguish it from the Atlantic “middle trades”, but also to demonstrate that man’s gross exploitation of others is not just something of which our children can shudder as they read their history books.

Slavery has never gone away, being merely concealed in some of the world’s richest countries, morphed into illegal migration, trafficking and every sort of exploitative criminality.

Very “modern” slavery indeed is to be found out over the horizon in some of the terrible conditions suffered by some of the wretches who work in the deep sea fishing sector. This is not what is termed artisanal fishing, practised dangerously by coastal communities in poor countries, but has big money behind it, catching high-value fish.

It operates often legally, in a licensed fashion, with quotas issued by coastal states, but also in an uncontrolled and illegal way, if this suits the bosses in the Far East better.

Fish used to be the staple of the poor, but as a commodity has put on enormous value over the past 30 years or so. So one might suggest that there is no reason whatever for any company selling into the lucrative markets of Japan, Taiwan and other prosperous countries paying high prices for their squid and tuna, to be so blatantly exploiting their workers.

Nobody, it seems, in these great fish-eating countries, is very interested in tracing back the chain which leads from their plate of succulent squid to the conditions of the folk who caught it on the other side of the world.

Even in Europe, where we obsess over the “sustainability” of our supermarket scallops, we don’t give a microsecond of thought to the conditions of those the International Labour Organisation has termed “fishers”.

Just occasionally, the appalling conditions lived by fishers far from home reach the headlines. We heard from the Falklands of people living like slaves and kept captive on board Taiwanese squid boats, actually jumping into the freezing waters and trying to swim ashore when their boat had closed the coast.

There were terrible things revealed in South Africa when Far Eastern owned fishing craft docked for stores and repairs to reveal new definitions of the term “rustbucket”.

There have been periodic flurries of concern in New Zealand when foreign ships operating under license in NZ waters have come into harbour and Port State Control inspections have shown up some real horrors on board ships manned by people whose working conditions virtually amount to slavery.

So full marks to the New Zealand government, which has clearly seen its patience with exploitative fishing companies eroded and has taken legislative steps to stop this disgraceful behaviour in its waters by what is termed foreign charter vessels working in that nation’s waters with licences and quotas.

People in New Zealand are perhaps not so far from the sea which surrounds them as some folk and there has been a good deal of public outrage in the media about some of the things which have hit the headlines in their port towns and cities.

The maritime unions, seafarers’ welfare organisations and others have been active in raising the head of steam about this matter, to which New Zealand’s government is now reacting.

A new law, presently before the NZ parliament, will ensure that if a foreign fishing vessel is chartered to work in the country’s fishery, it must be flagged in New Zealand, bringing it and its crews under the protection of local laws.

New Zealand’s unions refer to these vessels as “slave ships”, often with good reason and the move has been widely praised by the International Transport Workers’ Federation and the campaigning local unions.

However, there is a long way to go in this gruesome and fishy business that is inexcusable in the 21st century, with people living in disgraceful conditions for months on end, with no rights, cheated out of their low wages and often treated with great brutality.

Some might say that they signed on these ships freely, to escape even worse conditions in their home countries ashore. But should fish eaters in some of the richest countries in the world and the boat owning companies not see that this is inexcusable?

There are laws and conventions to provide protection to these wretched people. The ILO Work in Fishing Convention No.188 is seven years old, but still needs to be passed into international law by a large number of governments, with some of those most active in the trade notably dragging their legislative feet.

There are 15m people working full time around the world on board fishing vessels, so this is not an inconsequential sector.

It is never going to be for the fainthearted, with fishers working in small craft and facing rough waters, but there are plenty of fishing outfits which are well-run and try hard to promote safety and decent conditions.

However, well down towards the bottom of the fishing food chain, there are these awful, exploitative people who really ought to be run out of the industry. It shouldn’t necessarily put up the price of fish!

One doesn’t necessarily want to conflate different political campaigns, or give ammunition to Alex Salmond, but I was interested to read in Dr Ronald Hope’s A New History of British Shipping that King James V of Scotland complained bitterly to King Henry VIII of England of the conduct of English fishermen who, en route for the Icelandic fisheries, would descend on the Scottish coast and carry off Scotsmen to serve as slaves for the season.

It was, comments the author, “a rough trade carried on by rough men”. That was 500 years ago, and some things should have changed.

FROM GAZETA (RUSSIA):

В Южной Корее российские моряки объявили забастовку. Экипаж теплохода «Президент», который ходит под флагом Белиза, протестует против задолженности по зарплате. Сейчас судно стоит в порту Инчхон, грузовые операции на нем остановлены, сообщает Российский профсоюз моряков.

Председатель Дальневосточной региональной организации профсоюза рассказал, что судовладелец и работодатель — компания «Кораблестроитель» на протяжении четырех месяцев задерживает выплаты. Экипаж просит, чтобы инспекторы Международной федерации транспортников (МФТ) посетили судно с проверкой.

О трудовом конфликте на теплоходе также извещены посольство России в Сеуле, Федерация корейских профсоюзов, МФТ в Южной Корее. Во все инстанции моряки направили письмо с просьбой урегулировать проблему с задолженностью по зарплате.

Профсоюз напоминает, что с аналогичными проблемами столкнулись не только моряки на теплоходе «Президент», но также экипажи судов «Ньюзенберг» (флаг России) и «Капитан Кэнг» (флаг Камбоджи). В обоих случаях со временем конфликты были улажены: команда «Ньюзенберга» получила 45 тысяч долларов долга, а «Капитана Кэнга» — чуть более 110 тысяч долларов.

Инчхон в последние дни упоминается в мировых СМИ в связи с произошедшей у южнокорейского побережья катастрофой парома «Севоль». Судно затонуло утром 16 апреля. На его борту находились 476 человек, в основном это были школьники, направлявшиеся из города Инчхон на экскурсию по острову Чечжу. Спаслись 174 человека, в том числе капитан и большинство членов экипажа.