Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries revise human trafficking victim identification indicators

New criteria reflect characteristics of deep-sea fishing, aquaculture and salt farms; implement US State Department recommendations

Discriminatory working conditions by nationality, coerced contract extensions also flagged as exploitation

Photo is unrelated to the article. [Getty Images Bank]
Photo is unrelated to the article. [Getty Images Bank]

Forcing migrant fishery workers to send their wages to a third-party account, detaining them before they board a vessel, and discriminating against them by nationality in working conditions or sanitation and health facilities will now be listed as concrete indicators for identifying human trafficking victims, including those subjected to forced labor.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced Wednesday that it and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries will enforce revised "indicators for identifying and protecting human trafficking victims" beginning Thursday, aimed at detecting forced labor among migrant workers in the fisheries sector at an early stage.

The indicators serve as objective criteria for determining whether a person is a human trafficking victim in the field — during investigations, inspections and other on-site activities — under the Act on Prevention of Human Trafficking. The revision incorporates the types of trafficking harm that can arise in deep-sea fishing, aquaculture, salt farms and other industry segments, as well as across various employment arrangements.

Particular attention was paid to the vulnerability of migrant fishery workers who labor on vessels or in remote worksites cut off from the outside world, making it difficult for signs of abuse to surface. The revision also fulfills a recommendation in last year's US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report, which called for the development of fishery-specific identification indicators.

Detailed criteria for assessing economic coercion include the forced transfer of wages to a third-party account, high-interest loan agreements, and the failure to cover repatriation costs when a worker disembarks at a port other than their home port. Physical and emotional control measures were also added as new sub-indicators — among them demanding that a worker's family assume debts, detaining workers before boarding, and restricting access to communication devices on board.

The criteria for identifying exploitation were also made more specific. They now include discriminating against workers by nationality in working conditions or sanitation and health facilities, and using the threat of contract non-renewal to coerce workers into accepting unfair treatment.

Victim protection standards were clarified as well. The revised indicators explicitly state that a human trafficking victim is entitled to substantive legal protection even if they committed a crime in the course of being victimized or had previously consented to the exploitation.

The specialized indicators were developed by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries in consultation with civil society organizations and seafarers' unions.

Kim Seong-cheol, Director General for Safety and Human Rights Policy at the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, said fishery workers are often employed in environments — aboard vessels or at remote worksites — that are easily cut off from the outside, making it hard for abuse to come to light and leaving workers in a vulnerable position that can be exploited for forced labor. "Through this revision, we will do our utmost to examine signs of harm more closely in the field and detect and protect victims at an early stage," he said.

Kim Hye-jeong, Director General for Maritime and Logistics at the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, said the addition of fishery-specific criteria to the existing indicators "will be of great help in preventing forced labor and protecting the human rights of migrant workers in the fisheries sector."


adastra@heraldcorp.com