A/HRC/40/56 a human rights violation but a symptom and a self-reinforcing cause of poverty (A/73/164, para. 44). Indeed, widespread poverty in fishing and aquaculture communities is conducive to child labour, as it is considered both as a source of cheap labour and as necessary for realizing the right to food for children and their families. 3. Migrant workers 40. Migrant workers comprise a significant segment of the fisheries workforce, yet they suffer the most severe forms of abuse, including contemporary forms of slavery such as forced labour, bonded labour and human trafficking. States may seek to curtail such practices, in compliance with the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the supporting Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air. 41. Despite those protections, an estimated 40 million people, 71 per cent of whom are women and 62 per cent of whom are forced into labour, are trapped in modern slavery. 50 Labour trafficking has been on the rise in Europe, including in Belgium, Portugal and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, since 2015. 51 In the context of fisheries, contemporary slavery has been reported in South Asia, where high-ranking brokers traffic thousands of migrants from Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Myanmar, including women and children, to China, Indonesia and Thailand every year (A/HRC/30/35, para. 26, and A/HRC/33/46, paras. 17 and 30). Recent testimony from Egyptian, Filipino and Ghanaian migrant fishermen working on Irish-registered trawlers has contained allegations of conditions of modern slavery and susceptibility to trafficking under the State’s work permit scheme. 52 The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has warned against recruiting Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh into forced labour in the fishing industry with false offers of paid work. 53 42. Trafficking and forced labour among migrant workers are especially prevalent on the high seas, often beyond the reach or oversight of relevant State authorities. The connection between human trafficking and illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing is well established. The practice of trans-shipment further enables vessels to traffic and exploit workers without detection, as vessels may remain at sea for months or years at a time. Vessels operating away from shore, due to overfishing and the depletion of coastal fish stocks, are more likely to look to migrants for cheap or unpaid labour as long-distance fishing entails higher fuel and production costs. 43. Even without forced labour conditions, migrant workers are more vulnerable to discrimination and exploitation than their national counterparts, encountering language barriers and racist comments. In Ireland, and in Hawaii, for example, workers from Asia and Africa reported working long hours with little rest and were paid less than national workers.54 44. Recruitment agents and employers may confiscate identification and legal documents to prohibit migrants from seeking compensation or protection from government officials. Migrant workers, particularly those without documentation, are at risk of detention and deportation in several countries, such as Algeria, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Ecuador, Guatemala, Guinea, Nigeria, Peru, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Sri 50 51 52 53 54 10 Global Slavery Index 2018. Anuradha Nagaraj, “Europe’s immigration barriers branded ‘a gift to traffickers’”, Reuters, 15 November 2018. On 8 December 2018, the High Court of Ireland denied the injunction bid by the International Transport Workers’ Federation on behalf of migrant workers. See Ann O’Loughlin, “Judge dismisses scheme injunction”, Irish Examiner, 8 December 2018. IOM, “UN migration agency warns of trafficking, labour exploitation, sexual abuse of Rohingya refugees”, 14 November 2017. Migrant Rights Centre Ireland, “Left high and dry: the exploitation of migrant workers in the Irish fishing industry”, 2017, p. 4.