The International Organization for Migration (IOM), through its development fund to support activities under the area of Labour Standards on Fishing Vessels in Solomon Islands has uncovered issues affecting fishers while working in fishing boats.
Under a project IOM has engaged media to interview fishers who raised issues related to labour standards that should be addressed and treated by policy makers.
Speaking to the Solomon Star, IOM Programme Manager, Natalie Hanley said, most of the issues that have been raised in this project need to be addressed and treated by policy makers, fishery stakeholders, labour stakeholders and maritime authority stakeholder.
However, she added it is also an important issue from the perspective of the general public to know that these issues are happening.
“They need to understand why this is important and also as consumers of seafood products to have some knowledge about what it is that they’re putting in their mouth, where it came from and what conditions were like for those who were responsible for catching those fish products,” Ms. Hanley said.
For this, IOM held a workshop last year for media stakeholders, a training on these issues of decent work deficits in the fishing industry, and how to report ethically and sensitively about these issues.
After the training, IOM had a small grants opportunity opened up for those who’d completed the training to apply for, and a good application was from Jeremy Gwao, from Tavuli News, who travelled to Nauru and Western Province and spoke to a number of fishers, retired fishers to get their personal experiences.
Gwao then worked on a short documentary which was screened in a video screening and panel discussion session with SINU Fisheries studies students recently.
Gwao shared his experience of talking to fishers and what he learnt through making the documentary.
“One of the lessons I’ve learnt is that these people I spoke to, they did not understand what they were doing at first.
“They just go, sign their contracts, hop in the boat and after few months/years they started to notice that the treatment they were receiving were not right.
“These men were giving stories that comes back to the authorities, where they can take on board with such initiatives, insuring that people understand that going into the open waters is not an easy task. It costs your life, it costs your family and it costs a lot,” Gwao said.
He shared the challenges faced by these fishers; running out of water on fishing vessels and they had to drink salt water for days, even months, which is something that’s not normal.
“They also faced challenges with payments/salaries, which when signing contracts, they saw an amount which they didn’t get.
“They either get lesser than the amount on contract or sometimes no payments at all,” Gwao shared.
Gwao shared an incident where an old man who had been working on a boat almost his entire life and got retired 15 years ago.
“This man’s grandparents and parents died when he was out in sea, not knowing anything about it. When it was time for him to go home, he returned to an empty house.
“This man had no choice as this was the only option for him to keep his family.
“This is sad reality,” Gwao shared.
“We enjoy eating these tuna products without knowing the actual hardwork our fishers are doing and the bad treatments they had to endure.
“Behind these tasty tuna products, are sad stories,” Gwao said.
“So, it’s a quite challenging industry, especially for a journalist to go down. It’s a challenging thing to digest all the information that these people are going through,” Gwao said.
Ms. Hanley said these are important issues to discuss for the general public to be aware of, and that we keep speaking up about these issues, because it’s unfortunately across the industry.
“Sometimes fishers are afraid to speak out or complain, because it’s not the conditions would necessarily be better on a different vessel with a different operator, and they’re concerned that if they complain about their treatments, they might be perceived as being difficult, and then no one’s going to give them a job, in the context where it’s hard to get a job, no one wants to be seen as being difficult.
“So, if people are scared to speak up, it’s important for other people to speak up on their behalf,” Ms. Hanley said.
The documentary can be found on IOM, Tavuli News and SIBC Facebook pages.
By AGNES MENANOPO
Solomon Star, Honiara
