The tuna captured by Chinese ships that arrives in Spain fish for North Korean “slaves”

In the southwest of the Indian Ocean, against the coasts of Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique, dozens of Chinese tuna. The vast majority are from the state fishing company Zhejiang Ocean Familyleader in the supply chains of the MAr. An important part of the catches of this company, which has been dotted with accusations of illegal fishing and forced labor, ends in the European Union. In Spain, the tuna loins of Chinese ships are sold to companies that canned them for the white brands of large supermarket chains.

Last year, the organization of associated producers of great freezing tuna (OPAGAC), formed by 48 Spanish tunas who slaughter in the main oceans of the world, presented before the EU a protest for the “violation of human rights” by the ships that fly the flag of China, a country that has the largest fishing fleet in the world.

The focus returned to be put on the fishing of Beijing this week after a investigation of the British NGO Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF): Chinese property ships that are slaughtered in distant waters, specifically in the southwest of the Indian, use North Korean labor, in most forced cases, with sailors who remain in the sea up to 10 years without stepping on land because the captains of the boats try to prevent port authorities from realizing their presence, which is prohibited by a UN resolution.

These North Korean workers would have been assigned directly by the North Korean government to rise aboard Chinese Atuneros. Their salaries end almost entirely in the hands of the Kim Jong-un regime, which has been financing their nuclear and ballistic missiles with a good part of the money that those who work abroad, especially in China.

The United States Department of State said in another report that the North Korean government remains up to 90% of the foreign income of its citizens. In 2017, a UN Security Council resolution demanded that, with a margin of just over two years, countries should repatriate these North Korean workers. China and Russia, which usually row against these resolutions, ignore.

China and Russia

According to the estimates of international analysts who are dedicated to monitoring the activities of North Korea, around 100,000 North Korean workers abroad, 80,000 would be in China and 10,000 in Russia (although this last figure would not include the 10,000 North Korean soldiers sent to fight against the Ukrainian army). “These workers are collectively hired in China through North Korean commercial companies controlled by the Kim Jong-un government. They do not know their true salaries, since they receive their pay only after the employer deduces the funds charged by Pyongyang,” explains Cho Han-Bum, analyst of the National Unification Institute of Seoul.

The research on Chinese fishermen who has carried out EJF, which is based on dozens of interviews with other sailors (of the Philippines and Indonesia) that claim The European Commission on Extracomunitaries authorized to export to the EU.

According to data from the European Parliament, from 2020 to 2023, China sent an annual average of 35,000 metric tons of EU tuna. Between 2015 and 2022, the Asian giant increased its participation in this market from 9 to 24%. The sources of the Spanish sector indicate that, in 2023, Spain imported 18,695 tons of tuna loins of Chinese origin.

“It’s a scourge for us Because we compete in the same market with Chinese fleets that, in addition to illegal fishing, work outside the labor law. They do not comply with the fishing fee or pass labor or health inspections. There is also a particular circumstance in the case of tuna, which is free of tariffs in Europe when it enters whole frozen, regardless of the origin. All this makes the price of the can they sell Julio MorónExecutive Director of OPAGAC.

More imports

“The imports of these products do not stop increasing. We only ask to compete on equal terms, starting that we all comply with the labor agreement and the same inspections. But from the EU they are shielded in the free market, regardless of the conditions of slavery that occur many times inside the Chinese ships,” says Morón.

“North Korean crews, to avoid disembarking, are generally transferred to sister ships in the sea before Chinese ships dock, and then return again. Chinese sailors and other nationalities can use their phones to call their families, but North Koreans do not even have mobile of videos where North Korean sailors appear on board.

“The domino effect of this situation can be felt throughout the planet, since the fish captured with this illegal labor reaches the seafood markets around the world. China has most of the responsibility, but when the products contaminated by modern slavery can be found in our own dishes, it is clear that countries and regulatory agencies must also assume their part of responsibility,” he says Steve TrentGeneral Director of EJF.

In other investigations, the Trent organization has documented how Chinese ships in distant waters captured and killed protected species, such as turtles and seals. He has also collected testimonies of Indonesian and Filipino crew that denounced having suffered physical violence on board. Many of these workers, as did the North Koreans confiscated their passports so they could not escape. From Beijing they say that they have been fighting illegal fishing for years and that, since 2016, they have suspended more than twenty companies – in 2023 there were 177 companies and 2,551 ships that have the authorization to operate in distant waters – and fines for more than 130 million euros.