Obama to sign law banning US imports of fish caught by slave labor

Legislation passed by Congress last week closes loophole and bars all imports of
products that use forced or indentured labor

Oliver Milman
Tuesday 16 February 2016 21.55 GMT

Barack Obama is set to sign a law that would ban all US imports of fish caught by slave labor in south-east Asia, closing a loophole that has allowed seafood from forced labor to enter the country for decades.

Legislation passed by Congress last week would bar all imports of products that use convict, forced or indentured labor. The bill, which the president will ratify, ends an exemption in the US Tariff Act of 1930 that allows goods made by slaves to be imported if consumer demand cannot be met without them.

“It’s an outrage this loophole persisted for so long,” said Oregon senator Ron Wyden, who sponsored the bill. “No product made by people held against their will, or by children, should ever be imported to the United States.”

Widespread abuses of workers have been uncovered over the past year, including children who mine gold in Africa and women who stitch garments in Bangladesh. Particularly egregious treatment has been endured by Rohingya migrants who have been trafficked through jungle camps to work on Thai fishing vessels as slaves, the Guardian revealed last year. The forced labor has helped produce seafood sold across the world.

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