Human trafficking remains entrenched in the global industrial fishing sector, where exploitative labor practices often overlap with destructive fishing operations. The International Labor Organization estimates that more than 128,000 fishers are trapped in situations of forced labor at sea, with high risks of injury, abuse, and death.
The 2025 U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons report, released this week, acknowledged the presence of systemic issues of forced labor in fishing, but failed to accurately rank some key actors in the global seafood supply chain that contribute to these issues.
What is the TIP Report?
The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, published annually by the U.S. Department of State since 2001, is a primary U.S. government tool for assessing global anti-trafficking efforts. Each of the 188 governments is ranked according to its compliance with the standards in the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA):
- Tier 1: Full compliance with the minimum standards.
- Tier 2: Making significant efforts but still falling short.
- Tier 2 Watch List: Making significant efforts but with very high or rising number of victims and without increased government efforts.
- Tier 3: Not meeting the minimum standards and no significant effort to improve underway.
Combating human trafficking globally has for decades been a U.S. priority with bipartisan support. In principle, these rankings, considered the most comprehensive review of government action to prevent trafficking, protect victims, and prosecute traffickers, are meant to pressure governments to improve, as a low ranking carries the possibility of U.S. sanctions.
In practice, however, the report has long faced criticisms for its inconsistencies, political influence, and failure to reflect on-the-ground realities reported by workers and documented by human rights groups, and civil society organizations, including various entities in the Greenpeace network.
In advance of the 2025 report, Greenpeace offices and civil society partners submitted detailed evidence on forced labor and trafficking in the fishing sector in Taiwan and Indonesia — two of the largest players in the global seafood industry — to the State Department to inform their understanding of these issues.
Keep reading for more information about the TIP Report, what information Greenpeace offices submitted, and why we believe Indonesia and Taiwan’s rankings were undeserved.
The Situation in Taiwan
Taiwan operates one of the world’s largest distant water fishing fleets but has taken little substantive action to address issues that lead to systemic forced labor, according to comments submitted by Greenpeace USA, endorsed by Greenpeace East Asia – Taipei Office, to the State Department.
These comments included:
- Noting the continued listing of fish from Taiwan in the U.S. Department of Labor’s List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor, which indicates significant risks of forced labor in the industry.
- Documentation of 10 confirmed cases of forced labor.
- Evidence of inadequate investigation of reports of forced labor and failure to identify victims.
- An analysis of policy failures, including no mandate for ships to return to port every three to six months, ongoing allowance of transshipment at sea, and no requirement for free, secure, and reliable Wi-Fi on vessels — gaps which leave fishers isolated, and limited in their ability to communicate, organize, report abuses, and file grievances.
Greenpeace USA recommended that Taiwan be downgraded from Tier 1 to Tier 2.
The Situation in Indonesia
For the first time, Greenpeace Indonesia supported a joint civil society submission on Indonesia’s efforts to combat human trafficking. The comments were presented by Sumatera Environmental Initiative (SEI) along with the Union of Indonesian Migrant Workers (SBMI) and the Human Rights Working Group (HRWG).
Their comments noted:
- Persistent and egregious failures to identify victims, prosecute traffickers, and prevent recruitment abuses.
- Continued denial of justice to 12 migrant fishers from Aceh, whose experiences of human trafficking were documented in detail in a report presented to the Indonesian government more than a year ago.
- Consistent failure of local governments to prevent the trafficking of Indonesian nationals onto fishing vessels, including the presence of illegal recruiters in government-run vocational schools, where they are allowed to actively target students for recruitment in the fishing industry.
- Police mishandling of trafficking cases and the government’s ongoing failure to properly identify and protect victims.
Based on the severity and persistence of these issues, the coalition called for Indonesia to be downgraded from Tier 2 to the Tier 2 Watchlist or Tier 3.
2025 TIP Report: Progress in Acknowledgment, Failure in Accountability
The 2025 TIP Report, released three months late, made progress by including a section recognizing the link between forced labor and illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. It also acknowledged systemic failings in both Taiwan and Indonesia.
In the case of Taiwan, it noted fewer investigations and prosecutions, failure to fully implement victim identification, insufficient inspections, siloed responsibilities among ministries, and continued restrictions on migrant workers’ labor rights to change jobs.
For Indonesia, it noted endemic corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes, particularly in the fishing, palm oil, and extractive industries, which severely inhibited law enforcement action.
Despite these findings, the State Department again awarded Taiwan a Tier 1 ranking – for the 16th such consecutive year – while Indonesia maintained its Tier 2 status.
Why This Matters
By refusing to downgrade Taiwan and Indonesia, the U.S. has sent a dangerous signal to governments that failure to protect workers and prosecute traffickers carries little consequences. For the thousands of fishers trapped in forced labor, this decision means more deferred action on systemic changes to address their isolation and exploitation and less hope of justice. For Big Seafood, it provides cover for them to continue to profit from a business model built on abuse and environmental destruction. Finally, it undermines the credibility of the TIP Report itself as a U.S. foreign policy tool for accountability in anti-trafficking policy.
The late release of the TIP report, paired with the steep cuts to the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, the International Labor Relations Bureau, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), further weakens oversight and raises serious concerns about America’s commitment to addressing these issues.
The evidence is clear. The stakes are high. Workers deserve better, and governments and industry must be held to account.
What You Can Do
- Contact your member of Congress. Demand US leadership in combating modern slavery and human trafficking in the fishing industry and support to ensure that key programs and agencies, such as the International Labor Relations Bureau, the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, and NOAA, are protected.
- Sign the petition. Tell “Big Seafood” it’s time to stop profiting from modern slavery and to end isolation at sea.
