November 13, 2019 — Desperate to escape a life of slavery on a fishing ship in the South China Sea, Cambodian Lang Long took his chances — and jumped overboard.
He was trying to swim to a nearby vessel, but his attempt was short-lived, said investigative journalist Ian Urbina.
“They caught him, brought him back, and from then forward he was shackled by the neck when he was not working,” Urbina told The Current’s interim host Laura Lynch.
He added that after his escape attempt, Long was also routinely beaten.
Urbina interviewed Long for a 2015 New York Times investigation into human trafficking and slavery on fishing vessels, which he described as roach- and rat-infested and men and boys are worked 20 hours a day, six days a week.
His new book, The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across The Last Untamed Frontier, returns to the topic of human trafficking and slavery on the high seas, which Urbina said is driven in part by the economics of the fishing industry.