Due to multiple limiting factors, many Filipino fishers seeking litigious action against exploitative labor agencies recruiting for foreign trawling operations have been forced to drop their cases and return to work in similarly manipulative conditions, according to a labor advocacy group in the Philippines.
Joefel Resol, a regional coordinator at the Western Visayas Migrants Network, which is a coalition of organizations representing overseas workers from five Filipino provinces, told SeafoodSource that poverty and government inaction are two key factors forcing migrant Filipino fishers to drop cases they seek to bring against the labor agencies that recruited them to work on foreign trawlers.
Because fishers lack the funds needed to pursue litigation and governments are often unwilling to hear cases, Resol said fishers have few options but return to work on trawling vessels.
“They feel they have no option but to apply again to work as fishers,” he said.
Once back to work, they often face the same manipulative tactics against which they originally sought action, including withheld wages from agencies and various forms of exploitation once aboard vessels.
“When [fishers] are recruited, they are forced to sign a contract which they often don’t understand,” Resol said. “The contract is often presented by the agency just before the plane takes off, and often the contracts are written in Chinese. The workers are not aware of their working hours or rights.”
To mitigate the issue, Resol said the Western Visayas Migrants Network is trying to force the Philippine government to take human trafficking cases against labor agencies recruiting workers, predominantly for Chinese and Taiwanese vessels supplying squid and tuna to international markets.
Resol said prosecuting agencies on human trafficking grounds is the most effective way of achieving both justice and change in the industry but is a route that faces various challenges, not least of which are government apathy and securing funds to pay for fishers to travel from remote locations to file court papers and pursue cases.
He said he has sent letters to both the Philippines Department of Migrant Workers and the Department of Justice seeking to clarify whether either entity is “assuming the lead role in prosecuting these alleged cases of human trafficking.”
A letter sent in August 2025 lists 14 Filipino workers illegally recruited by two agencies, including five workers for whom Resol’s organization filed human trafficking cases and another four cases for which the organization was seeking assistance to file cases.
In another letter, dated October 2025, the civil society organization cited “systemic barriers” that impede access to justice for victims of illegal recruitment and human trafficking, referencing the cases of two workers forced to travel long distances to file claims.
“These impediments are directly attributable to the prohibitive costs associated with traveling to the Department of Migrant Workers office located in Iloilo City. Such systemic barriers effectively deny these individuals their fundamental right to seek legal redress,” Resol said. “The complaints system is really cumbersome and expensive for the migrants. It’s difficult because there isn’t enough money to help all the victims.”
One solution the Western Visayas Migrants Network has suggested is to allow online meetings with government agencies, but so far, Resol said the government has not been willing to facilitate such an option.
Other labor activists concur with Resol’s assessment.
Angel Ysik, a Philippines-based campaigner at the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), said “the process is slow.”
“Without a dedicated lawyer and assistance to complainants, cases don’t proceed,” she told SeafoodSource. “I personally assisted [fishers] to file their affidavit before the court. We had prosecutors assigned to the case, but without strong support to [vessel] crew during the legal battle, they aren’t likely to continue.”
Chris Williams, a coordinator within the International Transport Workers' Federation's (ITF) Fisheries division, said “there are thousands of cases like this.”
“I am working on some [cases] in the U.K. involving agents in the Philippines who were not paying the mandatory social security, and there are also others who [place] crew in debt bondage,” he said.
Besides campaigners' desire for the Philippines to take on such cases, activists have been pushing the government to ratify the Work in Fishing Convention passed by the International Labor Organization in 2007. Also known as Convention 188 (C188), it seeks to ensure higher-quality living conditions for commercial fishers and has been ratified by nearly 30 nations around the world including, recently, by neighboring Indonesia.
Ratifying the convention in the Philippines would give protection to Filipinos on foreign- as well as Philippines-flagged vessels.
Williams pointed to “very powerful tuna companies and vessel owners, probably politically connected” as a possible speed bump to ratification. He also said that there are “a high proportion of artisanal fishers who are not in employment relationships” in the Philippines, which makes it “hard to fit them into the decent work or minimum standards of C188.”
Nevertheless, the Philippines government has been slow to respond to calls for both C188 ratification and to take on cases against labor agencies, according to Resol.
“We are pushing for that, but the government is very slow to respond,” he said.
