ILO Brief

Rough seas: The impact of COVID-19 on fishing workers in South-East Asia

This brief assesses the impacts of the pandemic on workers in the fishing industry in Asia and the Pacific, with particular attention to the pandemic’s impacts on migrant fishers.

Briefing note | 19 April 2022
‘Rough Seas: The impact of COVID-19 on fishing workers in South-East Asia’ reveals how the impact of COVID-19 on migrant fishers and seafood processors has been exacerbated through their exclusion from government relief programmes, social security protection and unemployment benefits during the crisis.

It highlights how workers are made “out of sight” through policies that severely limit their freedom of movement or where their places of work – fishing vessels – are difficult to monitor.