Muhammad Syafi’i recalls screaming in pain as hot cooking oil splashed across his stomach and dripped down his legs, his wet clothing sticking to his burned skin as it began to blister and swell.
Like many impoverished Indonesian men, he had signed up to work abroad in the fishing industry, where wages are higher than in his home country. He was hired in 2021 as a cook on a vessel that supplied fish to Bumble Bee Foods, a major tuna importer in the United States.
However, upon arrival, he alleges he was physically abused and forced to work in dangerous and grueling conditions. Furthermore, when Syafi’i suffered severe burns in the kitchen, he claims he was left to writhe in agony on a bench, denied food, water, and medical assistance.
Syafi’i’s account is detailed in a new, landmark lawsuit filed by four Indonesian fishermen against Bumble Bee Foods. The suit alleges that the tuna giant “knowingly benefitted” from forced labor, debt bondage, and other forms of abuse within its supply chain.
In a statement provided to CNN, Bumble Bee Seafoods acknowledged awareness of the filing last Wednesday but declined to comment on pending litigation. The allegations have not been proven in court.
According to the legal complaint, filed on March 12 in a California federal court, the four plaintiffs worked on three separate fishing vessels that supplied tuna to Bumble Bee. While at sea, the men report being physically abused and held against their will.
Agnieszka Fryszman, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, told CNN that this is the first known case of fishing boat slavery brought against a U.S. seafood company.
“Fishing vessels rarely dock in port, so the men are truly trapped. This makes it very easy to engage in forced labor and trafficking,” Fryszman explained.
Human rights abuses in the fishing industry are well-documented, but accountability is rare. The industry is notoriously opaque due to its reliance on migrant workers, the complexities of global supply chains, and the fact that the work occurs at sea, where workers are often excluded from land-based labor laws.
Campaigners have long argued that U.S. companies must do more to ensure their supply chains are free from abuse.
“These are people who sought work to provide a better life for their families. We, as Americans, are consuming this tuna. We are eating seafood produced through these abuses,” said Sari Heidenrich, a senior human rights advisor in the global fisheries unit for Greenpeace, which is also representing the plaintiffs.
The fishermen allege that Bumble Bee violated U.S. human trafficking laws by importing seafood caught using forced labor.
Bumble Bee is one of the oldest canned seafood companies in the U.S. and holds the country’s largest market share for canned and pouched tuna, according to the Seafood Stewardship Index. The global tuna fishing industry is estimated to be worth approximately $40 billion, according to Pew Trusts.
In 2019, the company filed for bankruptcy amid a price-fixing scandal and was acquired by Taiwanese fish conglomerate FCF Co for nearly $1 billion.
Like many migrant workers in the industry, the four plaintiffs were hired by recruiting firms that withheld significant portions of their salaries as repayment for administrative costs, a practice known as debt bondage, leaving them with little to no pay, the lawsuit states. They were threatened with large fines if they attempted to quit.
The vessels remained at sea for months, with supply ships delivering fuel and retrieving the catch – a common practice in deep-sea fishing known as transshipment – leaving the men isolated and cut off from help. At times, the men organized strikes to pressure their captains to allow them off the ship, but they were denied permission, they allege.
Fryszman said that the plaintiffs’ lawyers were able to link Bumble Bee’s canned tuna to the ships the men worked on through the company’s own “Trace My Catch” tool, which allows consumers to see which vessel caught their fish.
Following his accident, Syafi’i was forced to return to work, despite repeatedly asking to leave, according to the complaint. He wore a sarong to work because trousers aggravated his burns. He alleges that his captain regularly beat him.
Muhammad Sahrudin, another plaintiff, stated that his ship’s captain hit and whipped crew members and stabbed them with needles. He said he lost count of the number of times he was beaten.
Akhmad, another plaintiff who uses only one name like many Indonesians, said he was forced to continue working after a load of fish fell on his leg, causing a deep gash that filled his boot with blood.
Angga, also using one name, said the workers were given so little food that they often resorted to eating fishing bait.
Experts say that the fishermen’s claims echo the experiences of other migrant workers in the seafood industry.
“Forced labor is not an anomaly. It is not a bug,” said Jessica Sparks, assistant professor in the division of agriculture, food, and environment at Tufts University. “It is a feature of the system.”
A 2022 report by the International Labour Organization found that approximately 128,000 workers were trapped in forced labor on fishing vessels, a figure that the report’s authors suggested was likely a significant undercount.
Natalie Klein, a professor of international law at the University of New South Wales, said, “This case exemplifies the exact problem that we know is endemic in the fishing industry, because you have vulnerable people who have been recruited, who have been abused on a fishing vessel that’s flagged to a country that doesn’t really hold any responsibility.”
Extensive reports on human rights abuses in the fishing industry by NGOs, international media outlets, and governments, including the U.S. State Department, have pressured seafood companies to take responsibility for their supply chains, including the conditions on the ships that catch their fish.
Bumble Bee states on its website that it is committed to “environmental sustainability and social responsibility” and that the company “addresses the health and safety of workers throughout our supply chain.”
However, the lawsuit alleges that Bumble Bee was aware of abuses in its supply chain and has failed to take crucial steps to prevent human trafficking.
The Seafood Stewardship Index gave Bumble Bee a score of 1.27 out of 5, noting that the company “lacks evidence of an approach to addressing any adverse human rights impacts.”
The fishermen are seeking monetary damages for the harm they have suffered, according to the complaint. They are also demanding that Bumble Bee implement and enforce several new policies to promote worker safety, such as banning transshipment and the use of recruitment agencies, requiring medical equipment on board, and ensuring that ships have Wi-Fi.
In 2020, the U.S. halted imports from a Taiwan-based fishing vessel that reportedly supplied tuna to Bumble Bee due to human rights concerns, the Associated Press reported. A 2022 report by Greenpeace also linked Bumble Bee tuna to Taiwanese fishing vessels that used forced labor.
Last year, Bumble Bee agreed to remove claims of a “fair and safe supply chain” and “fair and responsible working conditions” from its website, social media, and other advertising as part of a settlement with Global Labor Justice-International Labor Rights Forum.
In a 2021 interview with Seafood Source, Leslie Hushka, Bumble Bee’s senior vice president of global corporate and social responsibility, called worker abuses on fishing vessels “an industry-wide challenge.”
“There are some real challenges in this industry just in terms of complexity, but we’ve tried to put in place a number of systems where we can consistently work with our fleets and seek improvements in all of their practices,”
