Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF)

“My [North Korean] friend told me was that in seven years working on fishing vessels, they and their family were never given the money. The government takes the money and once they return the government builds them a house as compensation. They were not happy about the arrangement but they don’t have any option”, said an Indonesian fisher in an interview with The Guardian. There are strict UN sanctions against the use of North Korean labour by member countries, which are designed to deter North Korea’s practice of exporting labour and goods to fund their weapons programmes. Despite the sanctions, it has been recently revealed that North Koreans have been sent to work in Chinese factories and seafood processing plants – however, this is not just happening on land. Through interviews with Indonesian and Filipino crew, we found evidence of North Korean forced labour on China's tuna fleet in the Indian Ocean. Hidden from authorities, they are kept at sea for years, facing isolation, poor conditions, and abusive treatment – only for their salary to be given to their government. Forced labour must no longer continue with impunity. Collective responsibility must be taken to ensure transparency in global supply chains and put an end to modern slavery. Read more from Helen Davidson and Christopher Knaus in The Guardian 🗞️ https://lnkd.in/df4xYr3N Read our new report: https://lnkd.in/eePzKXbm

“Testemunhos de ex-tripulantes indicam que os norte-coreanos eram submetidos a condições abusivas, permanecendo até uma década no mar sem desembarcar” A Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) publicou uma investigação sem precedentes revelando que uma frota de navios chineses de pesca de atum que operam no sudoeste do Oceano Índico supostamente usou norte-coreanos como tripulantes - provavelmente violando as sanções da ONU. A tripulação ficou presa no mar por até uma década. Cobertura do New York Times: https://lnkd.in/ecv6ydtn Relatório completo aqui: https://lnkd.in/ezPt6ZQX

Our investigation into illegal fishing and human rights abuses on board China’s distant-water fleet in the Southwest Indian Ocean made an unprecedented discovery – evidence of North Korean labour at sea. Not only does this likely violate UN sanctions, but the conditions they face are inhumane. Testimonies from Indonesian and Filipino fishers and ex-fishers found that many of the North Koreans working on board the fleet had been at sea for years – some as long as a decade – without returning to North Korea or land. Severe restrictions were placed upon their freedoms, including not being able to leave the vessels or to use a mobile phone to speak to their families. Captains even attempted to hide their presence on board, and transferred them to sister vessels while at sea – a method known as trans-shipment. These efforts to hide the presence of North Koreans and keep them on board for long periods of time are evidence of a particularly severe case of forced labour. This takes place alongside illegal fishing and human rights abuses, emphasising the wider trend of weak transparency in the global fishing industry. Our report also uncovered that fish tainted by this modern slavery may be reaching global markets. We cannot turn a blind eye to this suffering at sea when we may be finding the products of it on our plates. It’s time for flag states and regional fisheries management organisations to enshrine strong transparency measures, such as:  ➡️ The mandatory transmission of AIS signals. ➡️ Better regulation or the elimination of practices such as trans-shipment at sea. ➡️ Equipping port states to identify and intervene in cases of forced labour. Learn more in our new report 🔍 https://lnkd.in/eePzKXbm

“One of them told me that he has a wife whom he never contacted during the seven years he’s been gone.” We have uncovered evidence of North Korean labour on board China’s tuna longliners in the Indian Ocean. Transferred between ships at sea, prevented from getting off at ports, and unable to contact their families, many are trapped for years by captains to avoid detection. One Indonesian fisherman who worked with North Koreans reported that their families had no idea whether they were still alive or not. These conditions “constitute forced labour of a magnitude that surpasses much of that witnessed in a global fishing industry already replete with abuse.” Read more from Sang-Hun CHOE and Muktita Suhartono in The New York Times ➡️ https://lnkd.in/e8Bv5hdk Read our new report ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eePzKXbm

New EJF investigation: North Korean forced labour on China’s distant-water fishing fleet Today, our latest investigation reveals that North Korean workers, some trapped at sea for as long as 10 years, are being used as forced labour on Chinese tuna vessels in the Indian Ocean, violating UN sanctions and driving human rights abuses in the seafood sector. These workers were passed from ship to ship and forced to endure extreme working conditions. The seafood they caught has made its way into global markets, by-passing legislation aimed at preventing this and tainting supply chains with appalling abuses. Illegal fishing and human rights violations also often go hand in hand, and these vessels were no exception, killing vulnerable and protected marine wildlife while engaged in these human rights abuses. Governments and fisheries authorities must act on this new evidence. Transparency measures, like those outlined in the Global Charter for Fisheries Transparency, are critical to ending these abuses. The tools to combat these crimes exist; they are largely low-cost or no-cost - we just need the political will to use them. Read the full investigation: https://lnkd.in/eVkc4F8b

Forced labour, physical abuse, and isolation for years at sea. Our new, unprecedented investigation has uncovered evidence of these abuses committed against North Korean civilians alongside illegal fishing on board China’s fleet in the Indian Ocean. This is the first time North Korean labour has been publicly documented on a distant-water fishing vessel. Through interviews, we identified their presence across 12 vessels from 2019-2024, likely in violation of UN sanctions. “Six Koreans were not allowed to go home even after they completed their four year contract. They were just moved from one ship to another”, said an Indonesian crew member in an interview. The North Korean crew were passed from vessel to vessel, a method called trans-shipment, to prevent them from returning to land. Not only were the rights of the North Korean civilians restricted, the crew reportedly experienced physical abuse, verbal abuse and excessive overtime. We also found rampant illegal fishing on board these vessels, including shark finning and the capture of animals like dolphins. Products of North Korean labour are making their way into global markets due to failures of fisheries management and port controls. Human rights abuses and illegal fishing have no place on our seas. It’s time to shed light on these crimes to prevent more suffering. Read “Trapped at Sea: Exposing North Korean forced labour on China’s Indian Ocean tuna fleet” ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eePzKXbm

Whales are our unlikely allies in the fight against the climate crisis. ➡️ They maintain healthy levels of phytoplankton – which capture carbon from the atmosphere into the ocean – through their faeces, and their migrations circulate nutrients through the ocean. ➡️ Whales can store vast amounts of carbon in their bodies. A single great whale can sequester 33 tonnes of CO2, which is safely stored on the seafloor when it dies and sinks. However, industrial whaling has greatly reduced the whale population. One study found that restoring eight groups of baleen whale species to their pre-whaling abundance would take millions of tonnes of carbon out of the atmosphere.We have also put great pressure on the ocean and its animal inhabitants with global heating, pollution, industrial fishing, and much more. Ocean action and climate action must go hand in hand. It's time for world leaders to integrate ocean protection into their climate commitments, ratify the UN High Seas Treaty, and commit to real, binding protections for the ocean. To secure a future safe from the impacts of climate breakdown, we must do more to protect our seas and the wildlife that lives there.

Today Oceana and other partners are launching #ProtectOurCatch, a campaign urging European leaders to #BanBottomTrawling in marine protected areas, with a two-fold result: support the future of small-scale fishers and restore marine ecosystems. Bottom trawling, a destructive fishing method in which heavy nets are dragged along the seabed, continues to devastate marine ecosystems and biodiversity, even in supposed marine protected areas (MPAs) – a designated region of the ocean where human activity is managed or restricted to safeguard resources and ecosystems. Read more ➡️ https://lnkd.in/dWa6CyqZ Charlina Vitcheva Jessika Roswall Dr. Florika Fink-Hooijer Emmanuel Macron Virginie Malingre Maïwenn Lamy Bárbara Machado BLOOM Association Blue Marine Foundation Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) Only One Seas At Risk

In Liberia, women are the backbone of the fishing industry. From smoking, drying, storying, to selling fish, they make up 60% of the fishing workforce. Women lead the post-harvest activities, but are also the leading distributors of fish and hold traditional ecological knowledge on processing and preserving fish. However, not only are they exposed to more health risks from smoking fish, they face structural challenges that limit their participation in fisheries 🎣 management. Our work in Liberia has involved improving women’s involvement in fisheries governance through the European Union-funded Communities for Fisheries project, which set up Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) in coastal communities. VSLAs bring women together to pool their savings, take out loans, and discuss issues that affect their livelihoods and communities. With more financial freedom and a network of support, women have been able to improve their businesses and secure leadership roles. “There are a lot of women that own canoes now due to the VSLA. Women initially did not have money, so when they started to save, they started to gain relevance, and it even helped to bring them together”, says Musu Dorley London, EJF’s Senior Technical Officer for Gender, and Community Participation. The impact has been dramatic – we’ve seen a 50% increase of women in leadership positions in Collaborative Management Associations, where fishers come together to make decisions about fisheries alongside the government. There is still a long way to go in the fight against poverty and gender inequality in Liberia’s small-scale fisheries sector, but these women are turning the tide. Read more from journalist Tina Mehnpaine for Front Page Africa 🗞️ https://lnkd.in/epX_X7PN Watch our film on VSLAs: https://lnkd.in/dhbbvaPn

Today is the World Day of Social Justice 🌍 A safe, healthy, and sustainable environment underpins all our human rights. However, environmental injustice is growing as our planet heats, and the world’s most marginalised people bear the brunt of its impacts. Nowhere is the need for environmental justice more clear than in Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya, home to climate refugees who fled extreme weather and conflict in Somalia. In Dadaab, they face food insecurity, disease outbreaks, and a lack of space, due to inadequate resources, facilities, and international funding. Our film reveals this climate refugee crisis unfolding in Dadaab through the eyes of a young female journalist, Fardowsa. She has no citizenship or passport, and like many climate refugees, nowhere to go. However, at Radio Gargaar, she has a voice, and uses it to amplify the stories of people in Dadaab. The growing #ClimateCrisis is taking away the rights and dignity of those who have done the least to cause it. Existing protections for climate refugees, international climate finance, carbon emissions reduction commitments, and investment in clean energy must be scaled up and strengthened. For a better future, we call for just, meaningful climate action now. Learn more about Fardowsa and the stories of people in Dadaab ⬇️ Watch ‘Radio Dadaab’ 🎬: https://lnkd.in/e7JhewVe Read our report, ‘Dadaab’s silent crisis: An international call for climate justice’ 📝: https://lnkd.in/e4iGe7hK