Companies have improved in the traceability of their products, but incidents of labour abuse remain ‘intolerably high’, said Greenpeace in the fourth edition of its tuna cannery ranking. According to its report, conditions faced by migrant fishers include deception in the recruitment process, withholding of wages, excessive overtime and physical and sexual abuse. Of the 20 tuna canneries nine from Thailand, five from Indonesia and six from the Philippines ranked, nearly half (nine) have not established measures for early detection and prevention of modern slavery at sea. Only eight companies refuse to source tuna from vessels that collect deposits from crew members to guarantee they would serve out the length of their contracts. Only seven of them require a list of the migrant fishers on board a vessel. And only four companies have whistle-blower and anonymous hotlines or email addresses for migrant fishers to file complaints. “Companies must perform due diligence on human rights and sustainability beyond what is necessary in other sectors, especially as tuna fishing remains an exceptionally high-risk industry,” said Ephraim Batungbacal, regional oceans research coordinator at Greenpeace Southeast Asia.

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