‘THEY ARE LIKE FLOATING PRISONS’
Foreign crews are confined to boats for years as they fish Hawaiian waters
HONOLULU Pier 17 doesn’t even show up on most Honolulu maps. Cars whiz past it on their way to Waikiki’s famous white sand beaches. Yet few locals, let alone passing tourists, are aware that just behind a guarded gate, another world exists: foreign fishermen confined to American boats for years at a time.
Hundreds of undocumented men are employed in this unique U.S. fishing fleet, due to a federal loophole that allows them to work but exempts them from most basic labour protections. Many come from impoverished southeast Asian and Pacific nations to take the dangerous jobs, which can pay as little as 70 cents an hour.
With no legal standing on U.S. soil, the men are at the mercy of their American captains on American-flagged, American-owned vessels, catching prized swordfish and ahi tuna. Since they don’t have visas, they are not allowed to set foot on shore. The entire system, which contradicts other state and federal laws, operates with the blessing of high-ranking U.S. lawmakers and officials, an Associated Press investigation found.
The fleet of around 140 boats docks about once every three weeks, occasionally at ports along the West Coast, including Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, but mainly at Piers 17 and 38 in Honolulu.
Their catch ends up at restaurants and premium seafood counters across the country, from Whole Foods to Costco, and is touted by celebrity chefs such as Roy Yamaguchi and Masaharu Morimoto. Americans buying Hawaiian seafood are almost certainly eating fish caught by one of these workers, who account for nearly all the fleet’s crew.
A single yellowfin tuna can fetch more than $1,000, and vendors market the catch as “sustainable seafood produced by Hawaii’s hard-working fishermen.”
But workers such as Indonesian Syamsul Maarif aren’t protected or compensated like locals. He was sent home to Indonesia after nearly dying when his boat sank 200 kilometres off Hawaii. He lost everything, and said it took four months to get his pay.
“We want the same standards as the other workers in America, but we are just small people working there based on the contract that we signed,” he said. “We don’t have any visa. We are illegal, so we cannot demand more.”
Over six months, the AP obtained confidential contracts, reviewed dozens of business records and interviewed boat owners, brokers and more than 50 fishermen in Hawaii, Indonesia and San Francisco. The investigation found men living in squalor on some boats, forced to use buckets instead of toilets, suffering running sores from bed bugs and sometimes lacking sufficient food. It also revealed instances of human trafficking.
In Hawaii, federal contractors paid to monitor catches said they are troubled by what they’ve seen while living weeks at a time at sea with the men.
“You get that sort of feeling that it’s like gaming the system,” said Forest O’Neill, who co-ordinates the boat observers in Honolulu. “It’s a shock. It becomes normal, but it’s like, ‘How is this even legal? How is this possible?’ ... They are like floating prisons.”
Under the law, U.S. citizens must make up 75 per cent of the crew on most commercial fishing vessels in America. But influential lawmakers, including the late Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye, pushed for a loophole to support one of the state’s biggest industries. It exempted commercial fishing boat owners from federal rules enforced almost everywhere else.
We want the same standards as the other workers in America ... We are illegal, so we cannot demand more.
Thus about 700 foreign workers in Hawaii, who catch $110 million worth of seafood annually, lack certain labour rights most Americans take for granted — with little legal recourse. And they’re detained on boats where U.S. Customs and Border Protection requires captains to hold the men’s passports. That potentially goes against federal human trafficking laws that could mean up to five years in prison.
U.S. Attorney Florence Nakakuni, the chief federal law enforcement official in Hawaii, said it’s all above board.
“People say ... they’re like captives,” she said. “But they don’t have visas, so they can’t leave their boat, really.”
Federal laws and rules don’t mention the Hawaiian fleet by name, though it’s clear the language in the loophole applies to these boats.
“It has the fig leaf of legality,” said Cornell University law professor Stephen Yale-Loehr, who, like other immigration experts contacted by AP, was unfamiliar with Hawaii’s arrangement. “This is inconsistent with the general notion in American values, if not law, that workers should be paid a fair wage and not be mistreated.”
Hawaii’s fishing industry is otherwise one of the most tightly regulated for catch limits and sustainability, attracting companies that pride themselves on being ocean-friendly. Supermarkets, restaurants and chefs selling the seafood condemned labour abuse.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Coast Guard routinely inspect the Hawaiian boats. At times, fishermen complain they’re not getting paid and officers say they tell owners to honour the contracts. But neither agency has any authority over actual wages.
“This is a unique situation,” said Coast Guard vessel examiner Charles Medlicott. “But it is legal.”
Here’s how it works: When boat owners need crew, they pay brokers abroad or in Honolulu to bring the men from overseas — mostly from Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and the tiny Pacific island nation of Kiribati. It can take weeks to co-ordinate, sign contracts, buy airline tickets and arrange travel documents for each fisherman.
Workers typically sign two- or three-year renewable contracts, and some extend repeatedly, staying up to a decade on boats with five to six men each.
“For one crew, one person, it’s about $10,000,” said Honolulubased agent Hernan Santiago, who works on commission. He also wires money home to the fishermen’s families, gets them phone cards and assists in times of crisis. “I’m playing the middle man.”
Regional Customs director Brian Humphrey said his agency could issue the workers temporary permits allowing them to enter the U.S., similar to those sometimes used by cruise ships employees. But he added that option would be “administratively cumbersome.” And so these crew members aren’t even allowed to land at the airport in Honolulu.
“There really is no purpose for them to come to the U.S. or for them to have a visa because they really don’t have any intention of setting foot on shore,” Humphrey said.
As a result, the men are first put on planes at home, and then hopscotched from country to country across thousands of kilometres.
“We’ve been stuck in this hellhole,” said Jim Cook, a longtime leader in the commercial fishery who co-owns several vessels, a supply store and a seafood restaurant at Pier 38. “It’s a very complicated system that doesn’t work well for anybody, not the boat owner, not Customs and Border Protection. And the potential for mischief is far greater.”
The fishermen are paid as little as $350 a month, far below U.S. minimum wage, but still more than they can make back home. Many workers also get small bonuses, lifting their monthly pay to $500 or $600. A lucky few get a percentage of the catch, making it possible to triple their wages. They’re willing to give up their freedom of movement for these jobs because of the salary.
For many boat owners, bait and ice can cost more than crew salaries. Some of the foreign workers in Hawaii earn less than $5,000 for a full year. The average pay for an American deckhand nationwide last year was $28,000, sometimes for jobs that last just a few months, according to government statistics. Experienced American crew members working in Alaska can make up to $80,000 a year.
Owner Quan Do, who brings his workers from Vietnam, said profits depend on the catch. It costs $35,000 just to head out to sea. If the fish are biting, he can double his money.
“Fishing, it’s a gamble,” he said. “If you’re lucky, you win. If you’re not, you lose.”
In the Gulf, foreign labourers also are fishing on oyster, shrimp and menhaden vessels. But unlike in Hawaii, they’re allowed on shore, and some get paid $14 an hour for eight-hour shifts. In addition, boat owners must file for costly permits certifying no U.S. citizens are available to work.
The fishermen are not just cheap, they’re skilled. Many from traditional Indonesian fishing villages, like Pemalang on the central coast of Java, start going to sea as young boys with their fathers. Money sent here from fishermen around the world pays for the brightly painted cement houses and new motorbikes parked outside.
But for some, the jobs are a disappointment.
Speaking from a boat docked in Honolulu, a 23-year-old Indonesian deckhand said his $450 monthly salary wasn’t worth it. The AP is not identifying any of the men still working due to concerns about potential retribution from their captains or agents.
“I was jealous of my neighbours who returned from Hawaii ... they were able to have a nice house and a prosperous family. So I decided to get a fishing job here,” he said. “It turns out that the salary I got is not much better than my job in my homeland.”
If the men are unhappy, some are allowed to skip out on their contracts, but the ticket home can cost up to two months’ salary.
One Kiribati fisherman’s ledger obtained by AP shows deductions including $1,300 for airfare, $1,800 to pay for his replacement and $2,100 for breaking a captain’s computer. After three years of work, at $350 a month, he ended with about half of the $13,000 he should have accumulated.
The U.S. government defines forced labour and debt bondage, often involving migrant workers, as modern-day slavery — annually blacklisting countries with the worst human trafficking records.
Kathryn Xian, who runs the non-profit Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery, says most fish caught and sold in Hawaii is done “by exploiting migrant workers in what looks to be a human trafficking scheme legitimized by our own laws.”
Authorities are aware Hawaii’s fishermen are vulnerable to exploitation, posting signs at Pier 17 in six languages with a hotline.
Abdul Fatah and Sorihin, who arrived from Indonesia seven years ago and were put on the Sea Queen II used the hotline.
First, a fishing line nearly ripped Sorihin’s finger off, and his captain set it straight with a chopstick. Then a winch cable snapped, badly bruising the fisherman’s shoulder. He was allowed a two-hour rest.
“I knew if I stayed on that boat I was going to die,” said Sorihin, who uses one name.
His friend Fatah, who was kicked awake before dawn for work, was just as scared.
So early one morning when their captain was gone, the two men broke into the skipper’s quarters, grabbed their passports and made a run for it while docked in San Francisco.
Eventually, federal officials issued each of them a special visa designated for victims of human trafficking. They remain too terrified to go near the dock at Fisherman’s Wharf, where the Sea Queen II still unloads just steps away from clanging cable cars and thousands of tourists. The captain did not respond to messages left by the AP.
Sorihin has advice for American seafood lovers: “Ask, where did this fish come from? Is it the kind of fish that you got from someone in slavery?”
Not all fishing boats have harsh conditions, and some crew members said they enjoy the camaraderie. All said the experience ultimately comes down to each captain.
However, on some vessels, cultural and language barriers, coupled with exhaustion, can exacerbate tensions. Entire crews, at times, have quit. And the days can be gruelling. One boat’s schedule looked like this: Work from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m., break two hours for lunch and rest. Work from 5 p.m. until 6 a.m., eat and sleep again. Start a new shift at 8 a.m.
“It’s very hard work,” said a Filipino fisherman who’s supporting a teenage daughter and a son studying engineering in college. “When the children finish school, I’m done with this.”