The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Vatican on Monday condemned modern-day slavery in the fishing industry and urged nations to end human trafficking and forced labour in the sector.
Fishing provides food and livelihoods for millions of people but frequently also "victimizes the most vulnerable," said FAO's director-general Jose Graziano da Silva.
He was speaking at an event co-organised by FAO and the Vatican to mark World Fisheries Day.
"We have seen increasing media attention focusing on human abuses in the sector, in both developed and developing countries. These include instances of labour abuse, forced labour, trafficking, child labour and slavery," Graziano da Silva said.
"FAO and the Holy See are calling for collaboration between all partners to work together in order to end human rights abuses along the entire fisheries value chain," he said.
Victims have reported an array of ills while working on fishing boats in remote locations for months or even years at a time including on the high seas where they are not under any national jurisdiction.
The reported abuse includes forced labour and debt servitude, exhausting shifts, beatings and psychological abuse, inadequate food and unsanitary living conditions, FAO and the Vatican said.
Some fisherman are even given amphetamines to keep going, victims have reported.
The Vatican's second-in-command secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin called for concerted action to stop the trafficking for forced labour of hundreds of thousands of migrants within and between countries, calling it a "tragic reality".
"Only by working together, and coordinating our efforts, will we be able to break the chain of exploitation that affects the fishing industry in many countries," he said.
Help to fishermen who are victims of human rights abuses, ensuring compliance with international rules on fishing and tackling human trafficking all are essential to achieving this goal, Parolin said.
Enough countries have now ratified an international convention on fishermen's labour rights to trigger its entry-into-force in November next year, FAO and the Vatican said, hailing the news.
The Work in Fishing Convention is designed to ensure that fishermen benefit from safe working conditions and health care, written employment agreements and social security protection.
