Featuring testimonies recorded during investigations in 2012, Impossibly Cheap: Abuse and Injustice in Bangladesh’s Shrimp Industry documents examples of hazardous working conditions, the use of child labour, bonded labour, withholding of pay, excessively low wages, health and safety violations, restricted union activities, verbal abuse and excessive hours.

Impossibly Cheap: Abuse and Injustice in Bangladesh’s Shrimp Industry follows EJF's The Hidden Cost report, published in September 2013, which documents accounts of human trafficking into the Thai shrimp industry, confiscation of identification documents, withholding of pay, forced detention and bonded labour.

The report exposes the reliance of Thailand’s shrimp industry on migrant workers, many of whom are trafficked and face arduous journeys, and even armed robbery, before enduring abusive conditions in shrimp processing factories. During investigations carried out in October 2012 and March 2013, EJF gathered evidence of perilous human trafficking into Thailand, as well as serious labour and human rights violations in shrimp facilities.

The Hidden Cost: Human Rights Abuses in Thailand’s Shrimp Industry follows EJF’s Sold to the Sea report, published in May this year, which revealed evidence of human trafficking, labour abuse and the routine use of violence, including murder, in the Thai fishing industry.

Bringing fishing vessels out of the Shadows draws heavily on EJF’s work towards the eradication of Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing in West Africa, which has revealed a compelling need for an international database of industrial fishing vessels containing their UVI and information on their ownership, flag, history, characteristics and fishing authorisations.

As explained by this briefing, EJF has documented vessels using multiple identities and changing their flags, names and radio call-signs to avoid detection and sanctions. A Global Record, alongside the obligatory use of a unique vessel identifier (UVI) in the form of an IMO number would drive transparency and traceability in global fisheries, thereby facilitating improved fisheries management and further action against IUU fishing.

EJF is calling on the EU to demonstrate strong political leadership to support the establishment of a Global record of fishing vessels, as part of its wider strategy to combat IUU fishing.

This innovative legal tool has placed the EU at the forefront of efforts to address pirate fishing. Whilst it has the potential to leave a positive legacy in the fight against IUU fishing, evidence demonstrates that a lack of coordination and uniformity in its implementation risks compromising its intended objectives.

Diversions of fish consignments to Member State ports with poorer controls than those of their neighbours and a growing trend in containerisation of fish suggest a need for more consistent implementation efforts and increased trade flow scrutiny. The absence of any vessels in the IUU Vessel Community List identified independently by Member States or by the European Commission is also concerning.

The report exposes severe human rights abuses associated with human trafficking in Thailand's fishing industry and documents the testimonies of Burmese workers, as young as 16, who were forced onto fishing vessels for many months and subjected to arduous, often violent, working conditions without pay.

The report details testimonies of crew murdered at sea, and on shore, and the shocking figure from a 2009 survey by the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP) that found 59% of interviewed migrants trafficked aboard Thai fishing boats reported witnessing the murder of a fellow worker.

Transhipment at Sea: The Need for a Ban in West Africa draws heavily on the evidence EJF has gathered through its work towards the eradication of IUU, or ‘pirate’ fishing in West Africa. It explains how the international movement of fisheries products – both legal and illegal – often depends upon transhipments. The complexities involvement in fisheries regulations mean that transhipments can be problematic and are often linked to illegal fishing activities. EJF’s call on coastal and flag States to ban transhipments at sea in West Africa is part of the wider effort to combat IUU, or ‘pirate’, fishing.

This new briefing discusses the lack of control in authorised transhipments and the fact that illegal transhipment at sea is widely used by IUU fishing vessels to gain access to market. It makes the case for a ban on transhipments of fish at sea in West Africa as well as a ban on the entry of seafood from such transhipments into the European market.

Prawn production has been linked to a number of environmental problems and human rights abuses. This guide aims to clarify the issues and help you make the right choices when buying prawns.

This report by EJF exposes the continued role of the European Union and East Asian countries in facilitating a market for seafood illegally caught in West Africa. Following a two-year investigation by The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), “Pirate Fishing Exposed: The Fight Against Illegal Fishing in West Africa and the EU” highlights how local fishing communities are fighting back to combat this illegal trade.

During the two-year surveillance investigation, EJF documented rampant pirate fishing in Sierra Leone and laundering of the illegal catch into the European seafood market by vessels accredited to export fish to the EU.

http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/index_en.htm

This report sets out the historic and existing governance arrangements for artisanal fishing in the Sherbro River Estuary, where fishing is vital to the livelihoods and food security of local communities.

Implementation of the EU Regulation to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate IUU Fishing.

As a first step in community engagement, and to inform the other sets of activities in Liberia, in early 2012 EJF held meetings in 13 communities. These were spread across the country, though seven were focused in Grand Cape Mount County, which is the site of Liberia’s recently inaugurated pilot CMA.

This document sets out findings from each community. It also provides an analytical summary of results across Liberia that will inform a set of working recommendations that will guide EJF’s work with artisanal fishing communities, both in Liberia and elsewhere in West Africa.

EJF considers that the Commonwealth has a key role in addressing the unsustainable exploitation of global fisheries, both within the waters of Commonwealth countries and those of the international community. Global fisheries have effectively reached their maximum sustainable yield and if strong action by world leaders is not taken now, there will be severe economic, social and ecological consequences. Vulnerable coastal communities in developing countries are most at risk, as they often depend on fisheries for their livelihoods and food security.