Trafficking and forced labour exploitation on fishing vessels Gunnar Stølsvik Head of the Norwegian national advisory group against organized IUU-fishing

Who cooperates? Customs Coast Guard Taxation dep Police Coastal Adm. Dir. of Fisheries Coastal Adm. Secretariat

“Virtually all of the men and boys reported enduring the following exploitative conditions and treatment: beatings to the head and body; threats to life; trauma from witnessing violence, death, and murder; inhumane working hours (sometimes up to three days and nights straight); sleep and nutritional deprivation; and extremely hazardous sometimes life threatening, working conditions.” UN Inter-agency project on human trafficking

13. April 2010 36 victims of traffickign was rescued from a fishing vessel in Costa Rica. The source country was Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Indoensia, Taiwan and China. They worked in two illegal fishing vessels. Worked 20 hours per day They had no food Some of them had been on the vessel for two years before being rescued.

Two cases involving men from Kaliningrad In a fish processing plant in Norway On an illegal fishing vessel that operated in the Barents sea

The fisheries authorities experience with such cases. There has been low degree of awareness. But anlysis of past cases of ”defectors” from fishing vessels indicates several undetected and unreported cases.

Norway is active in the awareness raising in international fora and particularly in the UNODC. We see trafficking of men to fishing vessels as an integrated part of the problem of illegal fishing. Norway also supported the ”crime at sea” together with several other countries.