Southeast Asia’s fishery workers overlooked in COVID relief: UN | Business and Economy

International Labour Organization says migrant workers in the fishing industry are treated as ‘out of sight, out of mind’.

Southeast Asia’s migrant fishery workers have been excluded from government support programmes launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, exacerbating their hardship during the crisis, the United Nations labour agency said on Tuesday.

Governments have overlooked migrant workers in the fishing and seafood processing industries, treating them as “out of sight, out of mind” with policies that limit their movement and provide little oversight of working conditions, according to a report released by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

A lack of reliable data about the industry’s workforce and conditions contributed to migrant workers not receiving financial support such as relief payments and unemployment benefits, according to the report…