2024 Australian and ASEAN Civil Society Exchange on Human Trafficking and Forced Labour in the Fishing Industry

Over the past 20 plus years, the Diplomacy Training Program (DTP) has worked with its partner, Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA) on promoting the rights of migrant workers, and promoting the implementation of commitments on business and rights. DTP’s partners identified migrant workers in the seafood industry as particularly vulnerable. This series of online dialogues between Australian and ASEAN CSOs focused on human trafficking and forced labour in ASEAN fisheries to address this.

The exchange aimed to:

• strengthen the transnational bonds between the CSO participants;
• develop a shared understanding of national contexts and regional connections between CSOs working on this severe human rights issue;
• offer a platform to discuss potential collaboration to build greater awareness and drive change.

The focus of the dialogues was on Indonesian and Thai fisheries industries and exports to Australia. The dialogue was timely in building on the adoption of the ASEAN Declaration on Migrant Fishers on 10 May 2023 and for taking place as the Australian government was appointing an Anti-Slavery Commissioner and responding to the statutory review of the Commonwealth Modern Slavery Act.

For more information, read the program's Concept Note.