'Slavery' uncovered on trawlers fishing for Europe

[n2doc]

Felicity Lawrence
The Guardian, Thursday 30 September 2010

Shocking evidence of conditions akin to slavery on trawlers that provide fish for European dinner tables has been found in an investigation off the coast of west Africa.

Forced labour and human rights abuses involving African crews have been uncovered on trawlers fishing illegally for the European market by investigators for an environmental campaign group.

The Environmental Justice Foundation found conditions on board including incarceration, violence, withholding of pay, confiscation of documents, confinement on board for months or even years, and lack of clean water.

The EJF found hi-tech vessels operating without appropriate licences in fishing exclusion zones off the coast of Sierra Leone and Guinea over the last four years. The ships involved all carried EU numbers, indicating that they were licensed to import to Europe having theoretically passed strict hygiene standards.
more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/sep/30/slavery-trawlers-europe

[valerief]

1. The Free Market in action. A travesty. nt

[BolivarianHero]

2. Next time they come to Newfoundland to steal OUR fish and destroy our ecosystem...

We will meet the Eurotrash with guns, we will take every last one of those bastards into Canadian custody, and let them rot away in our prisons for the next few years.

[catnhatnh]

4. Well yeah....;

Except I just finished reading "Lament for an Ocean" today, that details the failures of the Canadian government (amongst others) that lead to the failure of the entire northern cod stock of the Canadian Maritimes. Your chance at "Eurotrash" has passed with your fishery...

[BolivarianHero]

5. I know...

But after we took action, Europeans continued to fish just outside of Canadian waters in areas that would still deplete the stocks. My government's handling of the issue was inexcusable, but it doesn't take away from the fact that now that we have taken action, other nations fishing the same stocks must work with us under a banner of conservation.

[JustAnotherGen]

3. It's not akin to slavery

It IS slavery. Rec!

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Was indentured servitude well SLAVERY? Yep

just as much as this...

We should stop playing the semantics game and just call it by it's proper name.

[KakistocracyHater]

7. why is it the 21st Century seems to have more in common with the 19th C

the pattern is profoundly disturbing.