“As long as there is breath in your body, you can work.” That’s what the captains think, migrant fisher Adrie Nelwan observed after a fishing hook snapped back and struck his right eye aboard a Taiwanese tuna longliner in July 2021. According to him, his captain did not believe he was in pain and refused to head to shore so Nelwan could seek medical treatment. Nelwan’s testimony is one of 92 Indonesian migrant fishers interviewed for a Global Labor Justice investigation and report on forced labor in StarKist’s supply chain released in September. According to the report, Nelwan said that his captain withheld food and threatened to cut his wages because he couldn’t work. Fearing the consequences of not working, Nelwan returned to his duties around one week later. It was not until August 31, nearly two months after the injury, that he finally saw a doctor who prescribed eye drops. When Nelwan asked for additional care, the captain accused him of exaggerating his injury and told him to transfer to another fishing vessel. Nelwan refused and returned home to Indonesia with no savings, as he had spent his wages repaying some of the debt he incurred to secure the...

For Resi Yulianto, a job on an industrial fishing vessel offered opportunity and a way to support his family. Instead, the experience changed the entire course of his life: an experience marred by exploitation and abuse at sea, which he has now turned into a fight for justice. Resi, a former industrial tuna fisherman from Indonesia, describes himself as a victim of human trafficking and forced labor. Before even starting his new job as a fisherman in 2021, Resi had to pay recruitment fees to join the crew of the commercial fishing vessel. Because of this, he started the journey in debt, and at the end of his work, he was not paid, which left him in debt. Once aboard the fishing vessel, which operated out of Oman, he worked 18 hours a day, almost every day. Resi noted that his food – and that of the other Indonesian workers – was rotten. The captain separated the Indonesians’ meals from the rest of the crew. Resi said his movement aboard the ship was extremely restricted. He did not have access past certain areas at all. He tried to communicate with his family by phone, but there was no communication access...

The article details the history and operation of the Gulag system under Joseph Stalin's regime in the Soviet Union. Established in 1930, the Gulag was a network of forced labour camps managed by the Soviet secret police, initially the OGPU and later the NKVD. These camps held millions of people, including political prisoners, intellectuals, religious leaders, peasants who resisted collectivization, and workers who failed to meet industrial targets. The camps were designed to be self-sufficient and profitable for the state, with inmates working in mines, construction, and agriculture under brutal conditions. Death rates were high due to starvation, overwork, and disease, with estimates suggesting between one and several million deaths. The system continued until 1960, with Stalin's death in 1953 leading to gradual reforms. The article references historical accounts, including Alexander Solzhenitsyn's memoirs, and provides context on the scale and impact of the Gulag on Soviet society. It also discusses the conditions within the camps, the demographic composition of inmates, and the economic role of forced labour in the Soviet economy. The article concludes with a poem by Aleksandr Tvardovsky that captures the suffering of Gulag prisoners.

A Russian recruitment network backed by North Korean officials is supplying workers to factories supporting Moscow’s war against Ukraine, using forced labor to sustain Russian production while channeling much of the workers’ earnings to Pyongyang, a new investigation published Thursday, Oct. 29, found. The investigation by The Hague-based human rights organization Global Rights Compliance (GRC) uncovered a network of Russian brokers bringing North Korean nationals into Russia on student visas to circumvent UN sanctions prohibiting their employment. Some workers were placed at factories producing supplies for Russia’s military, including military food rations, according to the findings. Investigators documented workers facing 12-hour shifts, as few as two days off per month and threats of punishment against themselves or their families if they tried to escape. The findings expose another dimension of the growing partnership between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, whose government has already supplied Moscow with troops and ammunition for its war in Ukraine. North Korean workers recruited under false student arrangements The investigation identified a network linked to Moscow businessman Vladimir Sokolov and his Black Horse group of companies, which operates an online platform connecting Russian employers with North Korean workers. North Koreans...

A Russian recruitment network backed by North Korean officials is supplying workers to factories supporting Moscow’s war against Ukraine, using forced labor to sustain Russian production while channeling much of the workers’ earnings to Pyongyang, a new investigation published Thursday, Oct. 29, found. The investigation by The Hague-based human rights organization Global Rights Compliance (GRC) uncovered a network of Russian brokers bringing North Korean nationals into Russia on student visas to circumvent UN sanctions prohibiting their employment. Some workers were placed at factories producing supplies for Russia’s military, including military food rations, according to the findings. Investigators documented workers facing 12-hour shifts, as few as two days off per month and threats of punishment against themselves or their families if they tried to escape. The findings expose another dimension of the growing partnership between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, whose government has already supplied Moscow with troops and ammunition for its war in Ukraine. North Korean workers recruited under false student arrangements The investigation identified a network linked to Moscow businessman Vladimir Sokolov and his Black Horse group of companies, which operates an online platform connecting Russian employers with North Korean workers. North Koreans...

https://www.osintinvestigate.com Discover how Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) and AI-powered data analysis help investigators detect human trafficking, identify suspicious recruitment activities, uncover criminal networks, and protect vulnerable people. Explore how social media monitoring, digital investigations, and intelligence sharing support law enforcement in the global fight against modern slavery.

As of 2022, more than half of the seafood eaten worldwide was farm-raised rather than caught at sea, a fact that has been praised as evidence that fish farming can meet a growing demand for seafood while slowing the collapse of the oceans. But the unbridled embrace of aquaculture as a sustainable answer to feeding the planet ignores some very real costs. The most popular types of farmed seafood — salmon, shrimp, trout, seabass, seabream — are fed “fishmeal,” a protein-rich powder or pellet made from the very kinds of wild fish that aquaculture is thought to save. In fact, fishmeal is fed to two-thirds of global farmed fish. Before they reach market, some farm-raised salmon eat more than six times their weight in wild-caught fish. With thousands of fish farms worldwide, aquaculture provides millions of people with year-round access to affordable protein. Fish farming is also a crucial source of jobs, especially for women in India. But a wide-reaching investigation by The Outlaw Ocean Project, a nonprofit news organization based in Washington, D.C., has found that the aquaculture industry’s answer to worries about the world’s oceans — “grow more fish so we can catch less” — is often making...

WASHINGTON (Oct. 8, 2026) — The U.S. State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report identified persistent failures by Taiwan and Indonesia to protect fishers from forced labor, yet left both governments’ rankings unchanged. Taiwan retained its Tier 1 ranking for the 17th consecutive year, while Indonesia remained in Tier 2. Kate Melges, Greenpeace USA Oceans Director, said: “How many times will the U.S. government document forced labor in the fishing industry and then award these same rankings? Taiwan and Indonesia occupy powerful positions in the global seafood supply chain and could take steps to address forced labor and human trafficking, yet meaningful progress remains minimal. The U.S. government’s own findings should be grounds for accountability, not an annual exercise in describing the same abuses. Fishers cannot afford another year of business as usual.” The U.S. imports up to 90% of the seafood it consumes, including seafood harvested by Taiwanese and Indonesian fishing vessels, leaving U.S. consumers exposed to seafood that was caught with forced labor. The report cites Taiwan’s failure to criminally prosecute forced labor, which it describes as “particularly prevalent” on distant-water fishing vessels, inadequate uptake of Wi-Fi for fishers at sea, and no progress on aligning local law...

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The Uzbek government is violating the human and labor rights of cotton and wheat farmers through a coercive state production system, including penalties such as land seizure for not meeting quotas.

The man who served as general contractor for a Southern Arizona sect says he was coerced into unpaid labor for a decade. It was the third similar lawsuit by former

Nine ninety nine for a dream too cheap to keep. Nobody asks who really paid for it. A congressional investigation found an extremely high risk of forced labor in Temu's supply chain, no reliable way

The U.S. Court of International Trade is examining the legal basis of President Donald Trump's recent tariffs on imports from nearly all trading partners, which were imposed under the pretext of addressing forced labor concerns. The court heard arguments from both sides regarding whether the administration properly followed legal procedures in implementing these tariffs. Four small businesses and 25 Democratic-led states have challenged the tariffs, arguing they exceed presidential authority and fail to meet statutory requirements. Attorney Pratik Shah, representing the plaintiffs, stated that the Trump administration skipped necessary legal steps, including country-specific findings required by law, and instead implemented a broad, global tariff approach. In contrast, the U.S. Department of Justice, represented by Eric Hamilton, argued that the administration conducted thorough investigations into forced labor practices in international commerce and that the tariffs were justified. The court is expected to issue a ruling in the coming weeks, which could either strike down the tariffs entirely or require the government to provide more detailed justifications. This case follows a February Supreme Court ruling that struck down most of Trump's previous tariffs, which the administration then circumvented by imposing a temporary 10% global tariff under a different legal authority. The forced labor tariffs, ranging from 10% to 12.5%, were implemented in July after the temporary tariffs expired. The plaintiffs argue that the administration is using forced labor concerns as a pretext to revive a broad tariff authority that courts have repeatedly rejected. The court's decision will have significant implications for U.S. trade policy and the legal boundaries of presidential tariff authority.

The US Court of International Trade hears a challenge to tariffs on 60 trading partners, the third attempt to rebuild the global tariff power courts struck down.