South Korea has introduced revised guidelines to help authorities identify and prevent forced labour and human trafficking in the fishing industry. However, migrant rights advocates warn that the changes may have little impact unless existing laws are enforced more effectively.
The move follows a July incident in the port city of Busan in which two Indonesian fishers attempted to escape from a motel room where they had reportedly been confined for nearly 24 hours. The men used bedsheets tied together as a makeshift rope to climb out of an eighth-floor window. The rope unravelled, killing one man and leaving the other with a broken leg.
Lee Han-sook, director of the Migration and Human Rights Institute in Busan, said she had received information about the incident from the surviving fisher.
In August, the South Korean government officially recognised the survivor as a victim of human trafficking. He was the first person working on a fishing boat to receive this designation, allowing him to access medical, housing and legal assistance.
On September 2, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries announced changes to national anti-trafficking guidelines. The revised guidance identifies warning signs of possible abuse in the fishing sector, including untreated physical injuries, confiscation of mobile phones and restrictions on internet access.
A director at the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said the sector-specific provisions would help authorities identify labour abuses and protect workers’ rights. Although the guidelines are not legally binding, they are intended to help officials recognise circumstances that may indicate human trafficking.
However, advocates say the revisions do not address the main problem: weak enforcement of existing labour and anti-trafficking laws.
Wee Seo-hyun, a lawyer with Lawyers for Public Interest, said the guidelines were unlikely to produce significant changes without stronger action by law enforcement agencies. He also argued that authorities should be explicitly required to act when they encounter suspected trafficking cases.
Migrant fishers in South Korea have faced reports of confinement, debt bondage, wages below the minimum standard and working days lasting between 14 and 18 hours. Their work often takes place far from shore, with limited access to communication, making it difficult to seek help or report abuse.
Government data published in July showed that migrant workers accounted for approximately 80.5 per cent of fishers employed on South Korean distant-water fishing vessels. Most foreign crew members come from Indonesia, followed by Vietnam and the Philippines.
Some workers attempt to leave abusive jobs, but their visas generally restrict them to employment on designated fishing vessels. Leaving a job can therefore place them at risk of losing their lawful immigration status.
Recruitment companies and employers also face penalties when workers leave their assigned jobs and become undocumented. Investigations have reported cases in which employers or recruitment firms allegedly confiscated passports and phones, withheld wages or confined workers to prevent them from leaving.
Although South Korean authorities have arrested people accused of crimes against migrant fishers, activists say such cases remain uncommon.
The US State Department’s 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report identified shortcomings in South Korea’s prosecution of labour trafficking, particularly in the distant-water fishing sector. It said the country had prosecuted and convicted relatively few labour trafficking cases involving migrant workers and had not reported identifying confirmed forced-labour victims among migrant workers in the fishing industry.
The report recommended developing specialised procedures to identify potential forced labour among foreign fishers. South Korean officials cited this recommendation as one reason for revising the guidelines.
Lee said the country’s anti-trafficking legislation was relatively recent. The Act on Prevention of Human Trafficking and Protection of Victims came into force on January 1, 2023, leaving limited legal precedent for handling such cases.
She also highlighted gaps in protections for victims who report trafficking, including safeguards against retaliation.
Rights advocates say the revised guidelines could help authorities recognise warning signs of exploitation, but their effectiveness will depend on whether suspected abuses are investigated and perpetrators held accountable.
For migrant fishers working in isolated and often difficult conditions, stronger enforcement and reliable access to protection remain central to addressing trafficking and labour exploitation in South Korea.