Consultancy
No.: DC/SUV/CONSULT/2022/02
Publication date: 06 October 2022
Application deadline (midnight local time): 28 October 2022
Job ID: 9771
Department: CO-Suva
Organization Unit: RO-Asia & the Pacific
Location: Suva (presence may or may not be required at the duty station)
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Expression of Interest
External consultant to carry out baseline research on the places of origin of fishers on fishing vessels in the Pacific, and their pathways into that work.
Deadline for expressions of interest: 28 October 2022
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is implementing a New Zealand government-funded project to improve labour conditions in fishing in the Pacific. The project is being jointly implemented with the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The project will run until the end of 2024.
The ILO is responsible within the project to lead delivery of a number of specific activities that deal, broadly speaking, with pathways into work in the fishing sector, including international migration pathways, both regular and irregular. The research work to be carried out in the course of this consultancy is intended to review literature, and gather available baseline data. The results will serve as the basis for further work, including to propose and to promote policy solutions to identified challenges.
Working conditions on fishing vessels are vastly different from those experienced by workers in other sectors. Workers on fishing vessels may face challenges that range from poor working conditions to labour rights violations, through to being victims of human trafficking and forced labour. Work at sea is often characterised by long hours of hard work, high risk, poor living conditions, and low pay. Moreover, fishers may be paid on the basis of a share of the value of fish caught, in whole or in part, by the vessel, instead of receiving a fixed wage. The challenges are compounded by the fact that both public and private governance schemes often have limited purchase in the sector, leaving workers vulnerable to further exploitation.
That vulnerability is further compounded in the case of workers in the sector who have migrated to the Pacific to work, often for lengthy periods of time. Recruitment of fishers, especially migrant fishers, often happens through recruitment agencies that range from legally regulated job placement agencies to very informal arrangements associated with people smuggling and trafficking. Very often recruiters source fishers for recruitment agencies or fishing vessels directly. There have been reports in some regions that recruiters deceive, drug or abduct fishers to work on fishing vessels.[1] In some cases, migrant fishers themselves have reported that they are not aware that they will be working on fishing vessels until they find themselves in the harbour. It has also been reported that fishers’ terms and conditions of contract may change as they pass through different stages on the way to a vessel.
The ILO is leading work in the scope of the project to:
Develop mechanisms for Pacific Island Countries (PICs) to engage with and share information with labour source countries. Develop specialist advice and support to develop and disseminate information resources for those employed on fishing vessels, for the families and communities of those employed on fishing vessels and those wishing to be employed on fishing vessels, communities of fishers and potential fishers. Develop new or enhance existing initiatives for fishers on their rights and obligations to maintain safe, decent and worthwhile working conditions.
The ILO is seeking an external consultant to undertake a literature review, and carry out a mapping of actors and initiatives, to develop a sound information base from which the ILO and other agencies in the project can move forward to develop and provide the technical support described above. The research questions to guide this work could be phrased as: “Where do fishers on fishing vessels in the Pacific come from; what are their pathways into that work; and how is this regulated?”.
The work needs to cover at least these areas:
Labour source countries for fishers who are not Pacific Islanders; Migration pathways into the fishing industry for non-Pacific Islanders, whether formal or informal;[1] Recruitment pathways into the fishing industry for Pacific Islanders; Fishing companies present in the Pacific recruiting from the Pacific and beyond the Pacific Islands; Current communities of fishers or potential fishers and their communities in PICs;
This vacancy is archived.