The Zhen Fa 7 operates in the Pacific and South Atlantic off countries such as Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina

The U.S. sanctioned a Chinese jigging vessel operating in South America

ARGENTINA
Wednesday, July 23, 2025, 00:10 (GMT + 9)

Washington orders the seizure of all seafood caught by the Beijing-flagged Zhen Fa 7 after discovering severe human rights violations onboard, revealing the complicity of certain South American ports.

WASHINGTON D.C. / Buenos Aires - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has ordered the seizure of all seafood caught by the Zhen Fa 7, a Chinese-flagged jigging vessel, due to severe human rights violations against its crew, including sexual violence, identity retention, and enslavement. This information was reported today by the Environmental Policy Circle.

Photo: Milko Schvartzman/Círculo de Políticas Ambientales

The Zhen Fa 7, which operates in the South Pacific and South Atlantic off the coasts of countries like Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Argentina, was sanctioned after the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) identified multiple ILO forced labor indicators. These included abuse of vulnerability, isolation, withholding of identity documents, abusive living and working conditions, physical and sexual violence, and debt bondage. "The Zhen Fa 7 benefited from lower labor costs, produced goods below market value, harmed U.S. businesses, and unfairly gained profits," the report detailed.

Milko Schvartzman, an expert in illegal fishing from the Environmental Policy Circle, told TN that this sanction is exceptional and backed by strong U.S. evidence.

The vessel used the Port of Montevideo, Uruguay, as its base, a point Schvartzman highlighted as complicit due to its "absence of controls and inspections." In 2021, the Zhen Fa 7 abandoned an agonizing 21-year-old Indonesian crew member in this port, who died hours later. Despite these precedents, Uruguay's National Port Administration (ANP) does not officially register all vessel arrivals.

This sanction underscores the need to ratify international agreements such as the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies and an IMO treaty on fishing vessel safety. Although Argentina approved them, the National Executive Power has yet to ratify them, leaving the country, one of the most affected globally by IUU (illegal, unreported, and unregulated) fishing, vulnerable to practices that harm ecosystems and local economies.

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