Campaigner demands shake-up of certification schemes’ approach to labor abuse
U.K. socially purposed human rights service provider wants seafood sustainability certification programs to take better account of labor conditions within their standards.
Human Rights at Sea International Executive Director David Hammond said the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and other eco-labeling programs need to do a better job of setting fair labor conditions before allowing the sustainability of any fishery, chain of custody, or seafood product.
“What we are safe to say is that MSC, as a standard-setter, cannot provide any guaranteed assurance of no human or labor rights abuses occurring in any fisheries supply or value chain. Indeed, neither can any auditing or third-party accreditation body,” Hammond told SeafoodSource. “[That] is why a suite of various intervention measures is needed, including direct engagement with workers.”
The publication of an October 2023 Outlaw Ocean report that found Chinese seafood-processing factories were using ethnic Uyghur workers sent from a Chinese government program prompted Hammond to assert British consumers are exposed to seafood produced with forced labor.