Cape Town, one of Africa’s busiest ports, receives all kinds of foreign vessels every day – from cargo ships to fishing boats.

Increasingly, the small team that takes care of seafarers is discovering serious human rights abuses. Fishermen – mainly from Indonesia and the Philippines, complain of  insufficient food and water; of being forced to work up to 22-hour days, and suffering injuries which often go untreated.

This report aired on BBC World Service in August, 2016.

Read also: Bid for Freedom – Rescuing Trafficked fishermen as they dock in Cape Town