[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 154 (Monday, September 17, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1261]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





       INTRODUCTION OF THE HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND IUU FISHING ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. MADELEINE Z. BORDALLO

                                of guam

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 17, 2018

  Ms. BORDALLO. Mr. Speaker, today I introduce the Human Trafficking 
and IUU Fishing Act. I thank my colleagues, Congressman Grijalva (D-AZ) 
and Congresswomen Radewagen (R-AS) and Bonamici (D-OR), for their 
support as original cosponsors.
  Increasingly, we are seeing foreign fishing fleets forcing vulnerable 
people--migrant workers taken or smuggled out of their home countries 
and coerced into taking illegal narcotics as stimulants--to fish around 
the clock without rest, out of fear for their very lives.
  Human trafficking and forced labor in the global seafood industry is, 
very simply, a form of modern slavery.
  The United Nations' International Labor Organization, the Food and 
Agriculture Organization, and the International Organization for 
Migration all recognize human trafficking, forced labor, and related 
transnational organized crime in the seafood industry to be pressing 
global problems.
  In June 2018, the U.S. State Department's Trafficking in Persons 
Report identified more than 40 countries with substantial human 
trafficking and forced labor across their seafood industries and supply 
chains.
  This is especially true in southeast Asia and the south Pacific, 
where IUU fishing dominates much of the seafood industry.
  Right now, trafficked persons who were forced into the IUU fishing 
industry remain marooned on sparse islands in the South China Sea, 
waiting to be rescued.
  Seafood products harvested with slave labor are largely untraceable 
and could end up in our grocery store aisles, on the menu at our 
restaurants, or on our family dinner tables.
  Last year, the United States imported some $21.5 billion in seafood 
products from abroad.
  Congress and the Executive Branch have a responsibility to ensure 
that the United States does not import any seafood associated with 
human trafficking, forced labor, or other human rights abuses.
  To address this problem, our Human Trafficking and IUU Fishing Act 
would add the Secretary of Commerce (NOAA Fisheries) to the President's 
existing Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in 
Persons, chaired by the Secretary of State.
  Human trafficking and illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) 
fishing rank among the top global crimes.
  These criminal activities generate billions in illicit profits each 
year for transnational criminal organizations and other groups 
responsible for human rights abuses.
  Since 2016, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has detained 15 
shipments of seafood processed illegally in mainland China by North 
Korean workers under forced labor.
  With poor traceability and a lack of accountability in the global 
seafood supply chain, we simply do not know where our seafood products 
come from or the conditions under which they are harvested and 
processed.
  We must ensure that American fishermen are never expected to compete 
against foreign seafood imports harvested with slave labor.
  Our bipartisan bill builds upon the Victims of Trafficking and 
Violence Protection Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-386), sponsored by 
Congressman Smith (R-NJ) from New Jersey.
  I urge all my colleagues to join us in cosponsoring the Human 
Trafficking and IUU Fishing Act.

                          ____________________