Migrant fishermen detained on US boats for months with pitiful wages and poor working conditions, investigation finds

Hundreds of workers from Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam are employed on a fleet of American boats in a semi-legal system that activists say resembles human trafficking

The men catch swordfish and ahi tuna destined for top US restaurants and supermarkets (Getty Images)

Hundreds of foreign workers on US fishing boats are being confined to their vessels for months on end, for pitiful wages and with few basic labour protections, an investigation by the Associated Press has found.

Some 700 undocumented workers from developing Pacific nations including Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam are employed on a fleet of around 140 American boats, which regularly dock at Honolulu in Hawaii and other ports on the US west coast.

But the fishermen do not have US visas and so are not permitted to leave the boats and set foot on US soil. A federal legal loophole means they can work on the American-owned boats, but without most of the protections afforded to other US workers.

The fleet catches some $110m worth of fish per year, specifically swordfish and ahi tuna destined for US restaurants and supermarkets such as Whole Foods and Costco, with vendors touting their haul as “sustainable seafood produced by Hawaii's hard-working fishermen.”

It is dangerous and demanding work, yet the fishermen are paid around $350 per month – well below the US minimum wage. That, however, is far more than many of them could feasibly earn in their home countries.

The AP found that many of the men lived in unsavoury conditions on board the boats for as much as a year at a time, reporting that they were “forced to use buckets instead of toilets, suffering running sores from bed bugs and sometimes lacking sufficient food.”

They are kept on the boats by their American captains, who are required by US Customs and Border Protection to hold the men’s passports. Despite contradicting many US laws, the system is allowed to continue unhindered by Hawaiian and federal officials.

Syamsul Maarif, an Indonesian fisherman who worked as part of the fleet until his boat sank some 160 miles from Hawaii, said he wanted “the same standards as the other workers in America,” but added: “We are illegal, so we cannot demand more.”

Kathryn Xian, executive director of Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery, a human rights group, told AP: “Most of the fish caught and sold in Hawaii is done by the use of exploiting migrant workers in what looks to be a human trafficking scheme legitimised by our own laws."