“Ending Exploitative Recruitment Fees for Seafarers and Fishers - Press Release”, 2 January 2020

Human Rights at Sea…[has] publishe[d] its latest briefing note on exploitative recruitment fees in the maritime sector. Recruitment fees and related costs charged to individuals seeking work in the commercial shipping and fishing industries are unacceptable, and...[often] unlawful.

...[M]igrant workers are almost always made to pay for the opportunity of work either directly or indirectly by unscrupulous third-party facilitators…under the banner of charging ‘standard service costs’…

Fees charged are invariably excessive and...often brin[g]...life-long debt to workers...in the form of debt-bondage. Recruitment fees should…be borne by the employers...when such fees are essential business costs...

Human Rights at Sea calls for an immediate end to the charging of exploitative recruitment fees and related costs to all workers in the commercial shipping and fishing industries...upholding the Employer Pays Principle.