Today, the U.S. Department of Labor added shrimp from India to the 2024 List of Goods Produced with Forced Labor (TVPRA List), officially notifying all US buyers sourcing shrimp from India to exercise additional due diligence to combat forced labor. The Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) requested the action in March 2024 after evidence was developed and obtained through the investigations by Corporate Accountability Lab, the Associated Press, and The Outlaw Ocean Project. The TVPRA list also includes shrimp from Bangladesh, Burma, and Cambodia.
The Department of Labor also explicitly solicited comments and information as to whether shrimp from India should be added to its list of products produced by forced or indentured child labor, which would impact federal procurement through Executive Order 13126.
Heralding a victory, the Department of Labor removed shrimp from Thailand from the List of Products Produced by Forced or Indentured Child Labor. The report summarizes the efforts undertaken within Thailand to address child labor in the shrimp supply chain, ultimately observing that “In 2023, Thai government officials, an industry trade group, workers’ associations, international organizations, and nongovernmental organizations reported that incidents of forced child labor in shrimp processing had been reduced to no more than isolated cases. DOL’s review of available information corroborated that forced child labor in the production of shrimp had been significantly reduced to isolated incidents.” SSA did not oppose this action.
However, the report noted more work is needed to eradicate adult forced labor in the production/harvesting of shrimp in Thailand and identified the shrimp inputs of animal feed, fishmeal, and fish oil from Thailand on the TVPRA list of downstream goods produced with forced labor. Previously, SSA submitted comments requesting that the agency further investigate the supply chains for fishmeal and fish oil production in China, Thailand, and Vietnam.
“When evidence of forced labor and child labor surfaced in Thailand’s shrimp supply chains, retailers abandoned those workers to source cheap shrimp from India,” stated John Williams, executive director of SSA. “Today, the Department of Labor has taken an important step in addressing those same labor abuses in the Indian shrimp supply chains. U.S. shrimp buyers must eradicate forced labor from their supply chains, not find another cheap labor source. Shrimp producers cannot continue the race to the bottom.”
Department of Labor’s full 2024 TVPRA report: https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ilab/child_labor_reports/tda2023/2024-tvpra-list-of-goods.pdf
SSA’s March 2024 request to add Indian shrimp: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Indian-Shrimp-ILAB-March-25-2024.pdf
SSA’s December 2022 request to add fishmeal and fish oil: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/SSA-Comments-to-ILAB-on-List-of-Goods-Report-Dec.-16-2022.pdf