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Comment by upwardbound | Hacker News Reader

Here is some more detail about the ongoing human slavery that Keith spoke of and which phantomathkg linked to as well. https://www.ap.org/explore/seafood-from-slaves/fishing-slave... Fucking sad. I can't believe literal chattel slavery is this widespread. If you're considering becoming vegetarian or at least eating less meat and fish, maybe this is another reason to consider it. Either way, I hope we can find ways to crack down on abhorrent crimes like these in food supply chains.

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> The men left their impoverished homes years ago full of hope and headed to neighboring Thailand, promising to send money back from good-paying jobs. Instead, they were tricked, sold or even kidnapped and put onto boats that became floating prisons. They then were trafficked thousands of miles away to the isolated Indonesian island village of Benjina, where the AP first found hundreds of captive fishermen, including some locked in a cage simply because they asked to go home. They were beaten and routinely forced to work up to 22 hours a day. The unluckiest ones ended up in the sea or buried in a company graveyard under fake names — their bodies will likely never be recovered.

> The AP story prompted the Indonesian government to initiate a rescue. It also traced fish tainted by forced labor back to the supply chains of many major U.S. companies and pet food brands, including Wal-Mart, Sysco, Kroger, Fancy Feast and Iams.

> Once, after coming ashore, Prasert asked his captain for more money. As punishment, he says he was tossed into a tiny, muggy cell with about 20 other men.

> Myint’s freshly shaved head reveals two large scars he received during his years in Indonesia. One is from a motorbike helmet, the other from an iron rod — both blows from angry fishing captains.

> The memories are still raw of Myint collapsing into his wailing mother’s arms on the same dusty road just feet away from where they sit now in southern Myanmar. That day was tinged with both joy and sorrow for all the time lost — ending 22 years of separation after Myint was taken to Indonesia and nearly beaten to death by a captain who refused to let him go home.

Being Shanghaied is still a thing.

I wish this was TIL, unfortunately I already did.

The world is a much more brutal place than many in the developed world realize.

You can say "crimped", pressed", "press gangeg", "abducted" even "shanghaied" in place of "Shanghaied".

Not trying to normalize, just adding to the horror: Slavery is huge in South East Asia for all kinds of industries.

In Cambodia it's well known that people from neighboring countries (especially Vietnam and Philippines) are lured in with promises of good jobs and then have their passports taken and aren't allowed to leave. It's like a combination of slavery and ransom. Or worse up to and including organ harvesting.

I’m a lifelong vegetarian, I think many crop industries might have similar abuse? What is it about meat/fish that makes it more prone to abuse?

A big aspect is that much fishing takes place in international waters, where abuses are hard to document and it's possible to get away with murder (as in Keith's case).

That said, you are 100% right that the palm oil industry specifically is ripe with abuse including chattel slavery. :( Please avoid palm oil if you can.

https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/blog/slavery-palm-oil-indus...

Yeah, even here in Australia, some of the closest we have to slave labour is temporary migrants picking fruit and vegetables... Going vegetarian would do very little I think if you care about this issue.

The same thing happens here in Romania when it comes to potato harvesting, of all things. The people doing it are taking advantage of poor people from a few counties away, desperate to find jobs, oftentimes this desperate people bringing their kids with them.

Here's [1] an example from a few years ago, article in Romanian but that photo of the "accommodation" provided should be enough. Eight kids were also caught up in it all.

[1] https://click.ro/actualitate/national/ei-tineau-opt-copii-ca...

Generally, vegetarian/vegan requires less raw inputs, so less labor and less chance for slavery.

Buying produced food from sources that have rule of law is more direct, but harder.

This has nothing to do with vegetarians, and responding will only bring woe.

I believe the parent comment agree with you and is mentioning he is vegetarians so that answers focus on why fishing makes it's easy for slavery given there are abuses in agricultures as well.

Thank to this, he was able to ask a question that was uneasy to ask, and get the answer about international waters, making it an interesting addition to the whole thread.

@upwardbound appears to be mentioning vegetarians as flamebait, so if you want to engage with that, be my guest.

I don't read it that way. Quite the opposite, upwardbound is offering an opinion that is not against meat, and therefore, being vegetarien just signals it is rooted is thinking and not dogmatism.

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