As with any issue of injustice, proximity is key. 90% of the products everyday Kiwis consume are transported by the shipping industry, and yet many of us know so little about it. It’s a reality Rev. Lance Lukin, the Oceania Regional Director of Mission to Seafarers, is familiar with. “The ships have got bigger and bigger, but they’ve got smaller in our minds. Almost everything we consume comes on these ships, yet we have no consciousness of the system of oppression that makes that possible.”

Slavery on the high seas thrives on this ‘out of sight out of mind’ approach. Lance continues, “All sea-faring today, unless you are a captain or an engineer, is done by the cheapest labour shipping companies can find.” Particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, countries such as Thailand and the Philippines are rife with people smugglers who frequent impoverished villages offering promises of income. “Once they get onboard, their passports are often taken from them. They are kept in slavery with no way to get home. These ships have no hospitals and no internet, so these slaves are unable to access basic medical attention or to contact families who may have no idea where they are.”

Conditions are even worse in the fishing industry. A New York Times article, ‘Sea Slaves : The Human Misery That Feeds Pets and Livestock’, shed light on this in 2015. “Labor abuse at sea can be so severe that the boys and men who are its victims might as well be captives from a bygone era. In interviews, those who fled recounted horrific violence: the sick cast overboard, the defiant beheaded, the insubordinate sealed for days below deck in a dark, fetid fishing hold.” It sounds beyond belief, like something from a pirate movie, but this is the cost of meeting Western consumers with more goods quicker, and at a cheaper price. 

Lance reports that vessels similar to those detailed in the New York Times article operate in New Zealand waters. In 2011, 32 Indonesian seafarers fled the ship that they were on in Lyttleton and refused to go back due to the inhumane treatment that they received at sea. These larger boats often host several smaller vessels which never come to shore, allowing shipping companies to hold their captive staff at sea without having to encounter immigration or customs entanglements. A slave and master relationship often exists between the bridge and the crew. “On many ships captains have firearms to keep them safe from the crew.” Lance also notes the growing provisions of methamphetamines to crew so they can continue to work long hours without tiring. 

It is into this reality - of Hell on the high seas - that Mission to Seafarers enter.

By Scottie Reeve

This is part one of a two part article on the work of Mission to Seafarers.