Listen: The shrimp factory whistleblower (Episode 5)

Daily Maverick

5 days ago

What started off as a dream job, slowly revealed itself to be a nightmare. Josh Farenello moved to southern India to oversee a shrimp-processing plant, but it soon dawned on him that he'd really been hired as an American face to 'whitewash' a forced-labour factory. The largely female employees were in effect trapped on the compound, routinely underpaid and forced to live in inhumane, unsanitary conditions. Over several months, Josh meticulously gathered evidence that he brought to The Outlaw Ocean team for this exclusive exposé.
Episode highlights:
Averaging one dead body every six weeks, mostly Chinese fishing vessels have been dropping their deceased off in Uruguay's coastal capital for years. But in 2021, an Indonesian deckhand named Daniel Aritonang arrives clinging to life. He's conscious enough to say he'd been beaten, tied up by the neck and starved for days.
We learn Daniel's story is shockingly common in the world's Chinese-run fish-processing infrastructure. It's a realm where health and human safety are secondary to meeting quotas, and where forced labour and human rights abuses are rampant. We learn how vulnerable people like Daniel are recruited and how routinely they never make it home.
The team is convinced that they need to speak directly to the crew on one of these vessels. They themselves are shocked when a captain agrees to let them aboard. Even more surprising, a minder briefly leaves host Ian Urbina alone with the crew and immediately some men plead to be rescued.