Abuse, corruption, and death on Chinese fishing boats in Ghana

Bright Tsai Kweku has seen it all when it comes to abuse and theft on Chinese fishing boats in Ghana.

He says that he has seen Chinese sailors treat local fishermen like “slaves.”

Mr. Kweku says, “They beat them, spit on them, and kick them.” “That’s nothing new for me.”

Mr. Kweku is a bosun, which is an officer in charge of the crew and the ship’s equipment. He says that he was forced to work for three days straight without sleep, that he wasn’t given food, and that he had to drink dirty water.

Even worse things have happened to some of his fellow fishermen, he says.

Mr. Kweku says that one of his coworkers got cholera on a Chinese ship, but the crew wouldn’t bring him back to shore so he could get treatment. He died on the way back.

When a fire broke out on a ship, he saw another person get badly burned. A propeller caught another coworker. He says that neither of them made it, and the families have not been given enough money.

These are just a few examples of what people say happens on a large scale on Chinese fishing boats that work off the coast of Ghana.