New Zealand׳s fisheries management system: Forced labour an ignored or overlooked dimension?

New Zealand׳s fisheries management system is regarded by many as world leading promoting innovation and economic efficiency. However, success claims have excluded the labour dimension. The fisheries management system has long encouraged and facilitated the use of low-cost foreign charter vessels using migrant crew, to extract the maximise value from fisheries. Migrant crew members have been exploited for over three decades aboard many of these vessels. In May 2011, Indonesian crew from the South Korean fishing vessel Shin Ji, fled their employer citing abuse by their Korean officers along with the non-payment of wages. This paper is a case study about the Shin Ji crew in which the International Labour Organisation Indicators of Forced Labour are applied to interviews undertaken with the crew. Analysis of interviews and corroborating data reveals the crew came to New Zealand with the expectation of first world conditions and pay, but instead were subjected to forced labour. This paper adds the labour dimension into the debate surrounding New Zealand's fishery management system.