Page 28 - IB December 2023

Labour Rights Labour Rights

aboard the Run Da 5, a privately owned Chinese vessel, which hours, from 8am to 8pm every day.
was at sea for 565 consecutive days after leaving Busan, Fiji and China have a 30-day visa system, so every month,
South Korea, in August 2021. Among numerous allegations the Fijians say they were given back their passports, flown
of physical abuse reviewed by the FT, at least three workers to Busan (Korea) where they had to stay in the airport transit
suffered from severe frostbite and lost fingers to amputation lounge before boarding a plane the next day back to Shidao,
after being forced to work in freezers for more than five where they again surrendered their passports.
hours at a time. Immigration officials in Port of Suva in Fiji The men say their boss told them that they’d be paid in
rescued eight abused workers in March, the EJF said. Neither China at the end of the voyages, but that continuing requests
the Fijian police nor the fishing vessel’s owner responded to to the vessel masters and their boss were not successful. After
requests for comment.” six months the men still had not been paid. They say they
protested against this and threatened their boss in frustration.
Fijian crew and Run Da vessels They say the apartment was very dirty with poor toilets, a
It was not the first time the Run Da vessels had faced single shower for everyone, always cold water; they had to
scrutiny. buy their soap. The men had only two changes of clothes.
In October 2017, the Run Da 3 and 5 were berthed at two “We asked the boss if we could go home but he told us that
wharves in Suva. Six local men were approached by local and we’d have to pay our own air fares; having no money, we had
Chinese agents to work as deckhands on the vessels: Joeli, no choice but to stay,” one said.
Sekove, Luke, Josateki, Josaia and Tevita. They say they were Their threats against their boss saw them sent to a farm
offered variously, F$30 (USD14.70) or F$35 (USD 17.20) per for periods of time. “We were kept at the farm for one week;
day but—as usual in the Pacific longline fishing industry—no then the boss returned us to the fish factory to work.” The
written contract was given. Ultimately, three of the men, boss moved them back and forth many times “because we
Tevita, Sekove and Joeli, embarked on the Run Da 5, while made trouble.”
Luke, Josateki and Josaia embarked on the Run Da 3. The men Sometimes the men would also pool their money to buy
understood the voyages would be between three- and four- cheap Chinese whiskey, which they mixed with juice. “On
months’ duration. one occasion, when we were a little taki (drunk) and really
When the two vessels reached Busan in Korea in early angry, Luke and Tevita went to buy more whiskey. On the
January 2018, the Fijian men disembarked and were flown to way, they came across the company truck which was not
China, while Chinese crew brought the two vessels to the port locked. Because Tevita can drive, they got into it and sped
of Shidao. off but crashed it into a café; the two men ran back to the
“They took our passports,” one man said. apartment. However, a CCTV camera had recorded the
Instead of their being repatriated to Fiji, the men were put event,” they told us.
to work in a fish and seafood processing facility, their work “After Tevita crashed the car, some police came to the
comprising unloading containers, driving fork lifts, loading fish apartment and took him away. We didn’t see him for about
onto belts, packing processed fish and squid, and other heavy one month or more. Then we’d ask the boss where he was, he
tasks. just told us that he was in the Police station. Then one day,
They said most of the workers at the large factory were he came back with a Chinese man who asked the boss for his
women from Myanmar, plus some Chinese and Filipino salary, but the boss said he’d used it to fix the damage to his
workers. car. Tevita was taken away again by the Embassy man and we
The Fijians say they were given phones but without SIMs. didn’t see him again.
The men had no means of contacting their families until one “Finally, the five of us were flown again to Korea where we
of their coworkers showed them how to download an app, were put back on the two vessels which fished their way back
which they used to call home after searching the port area for to Fiji over three months…Altogether, we’d been away for
cafes with free Wi-Fi. almost one year. The vessels were dirty; no mat on the deck,
All of the factory workers (including the men) were bad toilets, rats and other things; we slept in bunks.
accommodated in a two-storey apartment attached to the “We were paid only F$5,000 [US$2,300, about US$6/day]
processing facility. The six men slept in one room. They say [for eleven-plus months]. We went to Zhong Fei to complain
there was no heating in the building; to try and to keep warm and ask for the rest of our wages, but Zhong Fei company said
they wore their long trousers, beanies (‘pompoms’), and they had no money,” the men told us.
thick jackets and gloves from the vessels (used in the blast
freezers). However they say they were not provided with So, what really happened to Tevita?
blankets (which they later bought themselves) or mattresses; “I was taken on a long, maybe two-hour drive to a forest
they slept on the plain wooden floor. The say the company with a rice farm nearby where there was a small shed and
provided meals for the workers: breakfast every day was they left me there. The shed was unlocked; they didn’t leave
steam bun, hot water (tea/coffee) and vegetables; there any food or water; the men drove off and never came back,”
was no lunch; the evening meal was watery rice with some Tevita says.
vegetables (carrot, onions, cabbage) and sometimes with fish “I was there for two or maybe three weeks. An elderly
(from the factory). They would arise at 6am and work for 12 couple would bring me lunch each day but after some days, I

28 Islands Business, December 2023