Ian Urbina, an investigative reporter for the New York Times, spent years researching the abuses in Southeast Asia's fishing industry. In the above video, he visits a detention centre in Indonesia where he meets with (mostly Vietnamese) men who had been detained when their fishing vessels were arrested in Indonesian
The video in this post has investigative journalist Ian Urbina trying to track down alleged murderers and human traffickers in the Thai fishing industry.
Here's a heads-up to a forthcoming book The Outlaw Ocean by Ian Urbina, following his years-long investigation of labour abuses and human trafficking in the fishing industry.
Former president of TWC2, John Gee, was a panellist at a human trafficking forum at the National University of Singapore's Stephen Riady Global Centre on Saturday 27 January 2018. In his talk, titled 'Nailing jelly to the wall', he drew attention to how terms and labels can be misconstrued, and responses can vary greatly. For
Transient Workers Count Too is deeply appreciative of the US State Department's efforts at drawing attention to the evil of trafficking in persons, through its annual Trafficking in Persons Report. The 2017 segment relating to Singapore can be found here: https://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2017/271276.htm Singapore was classed as Tier 2. TWC2 notes in particular these comments in the report:
A joint research by Dr Sallie Yea and Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) reveals that trafficked fishermen face insurmountable barriers to access legal and economic justice and protection. These barriers are caused by the following factors: significant gaps in measures for victim identification, a lack of coordinated support for the psycho-social needs and well-being of
The New York Times has an exposé on Step Up Marine, a manning agency operating out of Singapore's Chinatown, and its network of recruiters in neighbouring countries. Young men are deceived and entrapped into horrendously abusive jobs on fishing trawlers, including Eril Andrade who died at sea. Court papers in the Philippines point the finger clearly
The Guardian newspaper reported that s many as 4,000 fishermen, mostly Burmese with some Cambodians and Thais are being rescued from remote islands of the Indonesian archipelago. A quarter of them are said to be on Benjina, an island in the Aru group south of West Papua. After the Indonesian government imposed a ban on
A former director of a ship manning agency has been charged in a Filipino court with human trafficking and illegal recruitment, the Sunday Times reported on 21 September 2014. However, he appears to be still in Singapore, and there is no extradition treaty between Singapore and the Philippines. Victor Lim, formerly of Step Up Marine
TWC2 calls for practices of labour trafficking suffered by low wage migrant workers in all sectors of employment and foreign fishermen who dock in Singapore or on transit in the country to be addressed in the “Prevention of Human Trafficking Bill”. In a 17-page document submitted via email on 18 April 2014 to the address
