Our colleagues at Greenpeace Southeast Asia, in collaboration with the Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of Victoria and Tasmania, launched a new investigative report, “Forced to the Bottom: Squeezing Indonesian Fishers and Oceans for Tuna Dirty Profits.” The report draws on testimonies from 25 fishers working on 17 Indonesian tuna vessels supplying the Australian market, documenting indicators of forced labour including abuse of vulnerability (56%), debt bondage (56%) and deception (40%). It also traces supply chain links to tuna sold here in Australian supermarkets.
Crucially, the investigation highlights that labour exploitation at sea is intertwined with illegal and destructive fishing practices, underscoring that human rights abuses and environmental degradation are part of the same extractive system. Industrial fishing not only undermines workers’ rights, it drives biodiversity loss and ecosystem damage. Vast, robust ocean sanctuaries are a crucial solution to the ocean crisis. These high seas sanctuaries will provide a blue haven where wildlife can rest, recover and thrive free from the hooks of industrial fishing. If Australia is serious about ocean leadership, it must ensure seafood linked to forced labour does not enter our markets and require robust human rights and environmental due diligence across supply chains. Protecting workers and protecting the ocean go hand in hand.
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