Child Slave of the deep sea

Child slave labor refers to the illegal employment of children below 18 years of age in hazardous occupations. Underage children are being forced to manual labor to help their families mainly due to poverty.

Child labor has many ill effects in children who are supposed to be in the environment of a classroom rather than roaming the streets and risking every chance, time and time again, to earn money. Although most do get the privilege of education, most end up being dropouts and repeaters because they are not able to focus on their studies. Because of child labor, children suffer from malnutrition, hampered growth, and improper biological development.

One of the most common jobs for a child slave to carry out is fishing. Dynamites, Molotov cocktails, and cyanide are frequently used. But others use something else. They use young enslaved boys who are usually brought home dead along with their catch.

This illegal fishing practice, called Muro ami. A similar fishing process which is as destructive and as dangerous is Paaling, which compels young divers to use hoses attached to a surface air compression to form a virtual bubble curtain which forces fish into the nets. Typically, a Paaling operation uses four boats, each carrying 25 divers. Yes, Paaling methods did a great job in not destroying the reefs but what of he children?

Below are documented statements made by 129 children who escaped from a fishing vessel using Muro ami and Paaling methods in July 2000.

Eddie, 14 used to help his father farm but ran away wanting to earn money. "I started my work as a diver on the FB Unity. The boat has 350 divers with four managers. We had a ten month contract to work with the company. The company said we would be paid at the end of the contract. Our food was deducted from our salary. We were treated like animals and when we committed mistakes were whipped and beaten. Workers were compelled to work despite illness. We made seven dives a day and could catch fifty to seventy tubs of fish in every dive".

"We had to work from 6a.m. in the morning until 5 p.m. in the evening. Sometimes when we made mistakes, our supervisor whipped us with a rope almost the size of a wrist. On one occasion I was whipped because I misplaced the hose. Due to the maltreatment we suffered we decided to escape. While we can endure the diving we cannot withstand the lashing and physical brutality."

These document are long. It talks of miserable life, suffering and death in the sea often unknown by authorities. It shows that these type of fishing practices have not only become desperate but dangerous.

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