AMNA NAWAZ: In our interconnected, globalized economy, goods produced in one nation end up on shelves and in stores halfway around the world.
And while consumers hope there's some way to protect the workers who make the products we buy, some American companies have recently come under scrutiny for alleged links to forced labor.
William Brangham speaks with the journalist behind a new investigation documenting the forced labor behind Chinese seafood that ends up on American plates.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In recent years, Americans have been eating increasing amounts of seafood.
It's considered one of the healthier sources of protein.
But a series of new investigations by the Outlaw Ocean Project reveals that the way a lot of that seafood ends up in our stores and on our plates comes at an extraordinary human cost, specifically, workers from North Korea who are forced to work in Chinese factories.
Here's an excerpt of Outlaw Ocean's recent investigation.
IAN URBINA, Executive Editor, The Outlaw Ocean Project: 2023 was a highly successful year for Donggang Jinhui Food.
The seafood processing company based in Dandong, China, opened a large new plant at its compound in this Chinese city that sits along the North Korean border.
The company doubled the amount of squid that it exported to the United States.
In celebration of its success, Jinhui threw a huge party at its annual meeting with dancers, fireworks, and a high-tech light show.
The problem, though, is that a crucial reason for Jinhui's success was its widespread use of cheap North Korean labor.
Jinhui was part of a much bigger state-run partnership between China and North Korea, where workers are selected by the North Korean government and exported across the border to work in Chinese seafood plants.
This is a huge problem because it violates very clear and strict U.N. sanctions and U.S. law prohibiting the use of North Korean workers in this very fashion.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Joining me now is the reporter you just heard, Outlaw Ocean's founder and director, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ian Urbina.
Great to have you back on the "NewsHour."
IAN URBINA: Thanks for having me.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: This incredibly harrowing investigation looks at a series of these Chinese seafood plants in this city that you just mentioned near the North Korean border with tens of thousands of North Korean workers.
Explain to us, how do those workers get from North Korea into China?
IAN URBINA: Well, this is a long-running program between China and North Korea.
The two governments coordinate the selection of workers for different industries, then transfer them into the country, usually under two-year contracts where they stay in China, most often at locked-down plants where they're not allowed to leave.
The North Koreans seek these jobs because they typically pay much better than what they could earn in North Korea.
And there's a rigorous selection process in North Korea for those who get to go.
They're mostly women.
And the selection process by the North Korean government usually is a vetting that ensures they don't choose people that might defect.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So this is labor for Chinese factories.
What is the upside for North Korea here?
IAN URBINA: So North Korea, because of the sanctions, largely is desperate for capital, for money.
And so this is a multimillion-dollar moneymaking business, where they send their workers abroad.
And that foreign capital is a strong capital, Chinese capital, that they can use to buy weapons or oil or consumer goods.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Let's look at another excerpt about how -- what the conditions are like in some of those factories.
IAN URBINA: Workers often have to sign two or three-year contracts.
After they arrive in China, managers confiscate their passports.
If workers attempt to escape or complain to people outside the plants, their families at home can face reprisals from the government.
The work itself is relentless.
Shifts at the seafood plants run 14 to 16 hours.
Workers receive up to one day off per month and few, if any, holidays or sick days.
In seafood plants, the women sleep in bunk beds in locked dormitories, sometimes with 30 people to a room.
Workers are forbidden from tuning in to local TV or radio and from leaving factory grounds on the company.
They describe loneliness, violence, and a crushing sense of captivity.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Your report also documents even worse conditions, violence, sexual abuse, particularly among the women that you're talking about here.
Can you describe a little bit about what their lives are like?
IAN URBINA: This is a brutal type of work, long hours in tight quarters, relentless pace.
And so they're captive on facilities that are run by men.
And so this was -- one of the big revelations was the extent of sexual violence against the women, quite especially when work stopped because of COVID.
A lot of factories shut down, and so there was no work and no income, and, therefore, the women were pressured into prostitution.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I think a lot of American consumers would be horrified to think that the conditions under which food that they might be eating or buying in a store comes out of conditions like this.
How does that end up here?
Which retailers are we talking about?
IAN URBINA: Unfortunately, it's most retailers, most of the large ones.
So this investigation that looked specifically at the use of North Korean labor found that some of the seafood was ending up routing through plants that are supplying Trident, which supplies McDonald's with fish sticks, but also Sysco, largest food company in the world that supplies public schools, and federal prisons and U.S. congressional cafeteria also getting seafood from these plants, but then the major grocery store chains, ShopRite, Giant, Walmart also.
So the globalized world we live in and the way that seafood in particular largely routes through China means that many, if not most, brands in the U.S. are tainted by this.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So when you approach these companies and say, here's what we're documenting coming out of China and the conditions there, what do they say in response?
IAN URBINA: Most stonewall us and don't answer questions.
Some engage and say, we're taking it seriously, we're investigating, we will get back to you.
And still others say, we have taken this seriously, we have severed ties with this plant in particular.
The overall underlying issue is, the audits, the sort of inspections that they're supposed to be doing to check for these issues aren't working.
This auditing market, which sends inspectors into plants, whether it's soccer balls or iPhones or seafood around the world, has big problems, big challenges.
Often, they're not doing unannounced visits.
They're doing announced visits, so they tell the plant when they're coming.
That's a flaw.
But the other big flaw is that China is a distinct environment, and there are certain things not allowed in China.
If you want to stay in the country, whether you're a journalism organization or an auditing firm or seafood company, there's certain no-go topics.
And human rights and Uyghurs and North Koreans are topics you can't bring up on Monday and expect to still be in the country on Wednesday.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Ian Urbina.
The project is called the Outlaw Ocean Project.
Thank you so much for being here.
IAN URBINA: Thanks for having me.
