Towards freedom at sea: Handbook for the detection of forced labour in commercial fishing

The Handbook is aimed at both State authorities with oversight over different aspects of the commercial fishing industry and at non-state actors directly engaged with fishers or otherwise concerned with labour and human rights in fishing.

The Handbook is relevant for fisheries worldwide, but the tools it contains will require adaptation to each country’s legal frameworks and fishing industry characteristics.

Although parts of the Handbook are of relevance to artisanal fishing, its principal focus is on the detection of forced labour in the context of industrial fishing activities, including distant water fishing.

This handbook was informed by a review of academic and popular literature on forced labour detection in fishing, and by interviews with ILO experts, governments, social partners and fishing and oceans advocates in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America, and by bespoke research on the opportunities for the detection of forced labour in fishing.

The detection tools contained in the Handbook were refined following a review of existing tools for detection of forced labour in fishing, and on the basis of their testing in training for labour inspectors and representatives of other concerned regulatory authorities.