Workers prepare the 79-foot Pacific Paradise commercial fishing vessel for salvage off the shore of Honolulu, Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017. The boat that ran aground off Honolulu while transporting foreign fishermen to work in Hawaii’s commercial fishing industry has raised new questions about the safety and working conditions for foreign laborers in this unique U.S. fleet. (AP Photo\/Caleb Jones)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n <\/p>\n
Customs officials deny entry to foreign workers, but Hawaii uses federal forms stamped \u201crefused\u201d as proof that they are legally allowed to work after going through customs and therefore can be given fishing licenses, the\u00a0AP found.<\/p>\n
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources provided fishing license records for the vessel, including the captain who was born in Vietnam and is now a U.S. citizen living in Hawaii and four foreign crew members.<\/p>\n
Hawaii state Rep. Kaniela Ing said he was concerned that only five fishing licenses were registered with the state. The 15 other workers \u201care completely unaccounted for, and we don\u2019t know where they are and what they\u2019re doing here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The vessel wasn\u2019t carrying any fish when it crashed, the Coast Guard said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe issue isn\u2019t whether or not there\u2019s evidence that they\u2019re being trafficked, it\u2019s that there\u2019s no evidence to the contrary,\u201d Ing said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing saying these folks are here legally and aren\u2019t being exploited because there\u2019s no record.\u201d<\/p>\n
He tried in vain to get tightened regulations passed last year and may introduce legislation again but said the longline fishing industry is powerful because people love sushi.<\/p>\n
The boat is owned by Honolulu-based TWOL LLC. A man who answered a phone number associated with the company identified himself as part-owner David Tran and referred questions to his lawyer, Brian Ho. Ho refused to answer questions Wednesday.<\/p>\n
State Division of Aquatic Resources Administrator Bruce Anderson said it was unusual for a fishing boat to be in the crash area, which has no charted shipping lanes and where fishing isn\u2019t allowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cEither they missed the harbor or perhaps they had some mechanical problems and drifted ashore, or it was just careless seamanship, the captain was drunk or asleep or whoever was at the helm didn\u2019t realize that they were as close to shore as they were,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n
The Coast Guard would not comment, citing its ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n
Steve Kokinos, president of Ocean Marine Brokerage Services in Louisiana, said the crash seemed suspicious.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they\u2019re not calling for help … they didn\u2019t want authorities around them, they were hoping they could probably get it off or they could disappear into the night,\u201d Kokinos said.<\/p>\n
He also thought it would be difficult to have 20 people on a vessel its size.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would be surprised if there were more than 10 bunks unless they had done some modifications to the boat,\u201d Kokinos said, adding the conditions for the foreign workers were \u201cprobably deplorable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sean Martin, president of the Hawaii Longline Association, an industry group, said officials closely monitor vessels when departing and returning to pick up crews. Boats must go to designated piers at the direction of state and federal officials and give 120 hours advance notice of arrival when returning from American Samoa with foreign crews, he said.<\/p>\n
Follow us\u00a0on Facebook for more Logistics News<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\nThe Hawaii fleet\u2019s treatment of foreign fishermen has led environmental and advocacy groups to file a\u00a0complaint\u00a0with the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, an autonomous body of the Organization of the American States, which works to protect human rights. The U.S. is a member of that organization.<\/p>\n
The complaint asks the commission to determine the responsibility of the U.S. government for human rights abuses against foreign workers in Hawaii.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This undated photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard shows the 79-foot fishing boat HONOLULU (AP) \u2014 A boat that ran aground off Honolulu while transporting foreign fishermen to work in Hawaii\u2019s commercial fishing industry has raised new questions about the safety and working conditions for foreign laborers in this unique U.S. fleet. Along,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[61,28,91,26,47],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5275"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5278,"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5275\/revisions\/5278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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