Fishing is the most dangerous work in the world. The ILO recognises it as a high-risk sector for forced labour and human trafficking, and the conditions that make it so are systemic.
Vessels operate far from ports, regulators and support services. Fishers, often migrant workers, spend weeks or months at sea with little contact with authorities, trade unions, families or independent oversight – which obscures abuse and makes monitoring, reporting and remediation extremely difficult. Fishers cross jurisdictions, work in international waters and are recruited across borders through layers of intermediaries that charge fees, misrepresent conditions and create dependency. Ownership, management, crewing and recruitment are separated across multiple entities, so responsibility for labour standards is hard to locate and remedy harder still.
ILO Convention 188, the Work in Fishing Convention, sets minimum requirements for work aboard fishing vessels: written work agreements, minimum rest, accommodation, food and water, medical care and repatriation. Ratification remains limited, and in many jurisdictions, fishers are excluded from the labour law that protects other workers, this is especially the case or migrant fishers. The gap between the standard and the reality is where these risks live.
