13 October
2006 - Kiribati — Fishing and prostitution might
be the two oldest professions. But the exploitation
of both is creating new vulnerabilities for Pacific
islands as the whole world increasingly comes
to fish in its waters. Ben Bohane reports from
Kiribati.
The deck of the Taiwanese purse-seiner
bustles with activity. At anchor a few kilometres
off Tarawa in Kiribati, tons of skipjack tuna
are lifted from a refrigerated hold up onto the
sweltering topdeck for transhipment to a ship
moored beside it. Whistles blow, nets of shimmering
fish are raised and swung onto the mothership,
which will take its cargo to canneries in Papua
New Guinea and Taiwan.
But look closer and another
small transhipment is also taking place between
the two rolling boats. A young girl is gingerly
easing herself down thick ropes from the mothership
onto the purse-seiner. It is a delicate balancing
act 20 metres above water and for a moment she
looks like a trapeze artist, walking the tightrope.
She smiles at one of the Taiwanese crew as she
drops like a cat onto the deck and disappears
into a nearby cabin. Here in Kiribati she is known
as a "korakorea" girl; a girl who spends
time with fishermen.
Not as romantic as it seems
In the Pacific, the practice
of sweet young girls paddling out to foreign boats
to introduce their charms to restless seamen is
nothing new, it is almost a cliché of Pacific
history. European sailors were fond of dropping
anchor in places like Tahiti knowing they would
be "warmly welcomed" after long and
lonely months at sea. Such women helped cause
mutiny on the Bounty, and much else to inspire
romantic notions in Europe that the Pacific islands
were an Eden of sorts.
Although the practice continues
today, there is little romance and far more dangers
involved for the girls - the spectre of AIDS and
social/psychological consequences of girls as
young as 12 involved gives the fishing industry
a dark side that is rarely contemplated when consumers
open a tin of tuna.
In reality, there are growing
social consequences as a result of a rapacious
fishing industry worth an estimated US$2.7 billion
per year. More than half the world's tuna, about
2 million tons per year, now comes from the Pacific
region.
Why the world is coming to the
Pacific for fish
The Pacific ocean holds the
world's last great fish supply - since many of
the world's oceans have been substantially overfished
in recent decades. The EU, after enforcing a moratorium
on cod fishing in the Atlantic which put much
of the European fleet on dry dock, has recently
signed a number of bi-lateral deals with Pacific
island states to fish in their waters.
Europe now sources much of its
tuna from the Pacific - in Germany, for example,
half the tuna consumed there comes from Kiribati
alone. The EU fleet now joins China, Taiwan, Japan,
Russia, America, The Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand
and others who are ranging far into the Pacific,
often unmonitored, to harvest schools of fish
(mainly tuna) on an industrial scale.
Korakorea girls
As in most places, prostitution
is hardly a modern phenomenon. In Kiribati, the
term "korakorea" was first coined to
describe local girls who went aboard Korean fishing
vessels, but is now more generally used for girls
going onboard fishing boats from any country as
well as being slang for "cheap fish".
Many do it because of poverty
at home and the chance to earn money, clothes
and fish to take home. Some girls get pressured
by their families to do it. Others claim they
do it so they can get "drinking money for
their friends" and because the foreign fishermen
treat them better than their local men do.
There is no law against prostitution
in Kiribati, which was highlighted recently when
80 girls were rounded up and brought before a
local court before being released. Yet there is
growing concern that Kiribati maybe breaching
international conventions on child protection
since many of the girls are only 14 and 15 years
of age. UNICEF is preparing to release a damning
document relating to underage prostitution in
several Pacific countries, including Kiribati.
"I know about one 12 year
old girl who was taken out to a fishing boat by
her aunty and she has disappeared. Her family
are very worried since she has been missing now
for 4 months".
Kathy is a pretty 21 year old
girl who lives with her father, an unemployed
former government worker, in a crowded settlement
near the Betio port on south Tarawa. She claims
there are many local girls involved in the trade
and they all have different motivations.
"It all depends because
some they really need money to support their families
with food, so they feel some pressure. Other girls
need money to buy drinks for themselves and friends
when they want to go out to the bars".
Kathy says that even though
their have been crackdowns by local authorities
the girls are not scared of getting caught by
police because "their family are supporting
them".
Taking advantage of history
and attitudes
This is what makes prostitution
in Kiribati and other Pacific islands a complex
issue. For many Pacific cultures it is not a big
deal; sex, custom and fishing are all intertwined,
subject to tabus. Many islanders do not view such
exchanges as "prostitution". Fishing
and sex have long been linked to traditions that
were, in itself, not necessarily a bad thing,
because everything was shared within communities
and remote islands needed "new blood"
to prevent inbreeding and keep the tribe strong
to defend from raiding enemies. Ritual exchanges
of things like fish and women kept the peace among
neighbours.
In Kiribati, as a recent UNICEF
document points out, prostitution is not new.
"In 1826 prostitutes were
referred to as Nikiranroro, meaning those who
had lost their virginity or had eloped. Whalers
were much criticised and blamed for having increased
prostitution in the islands...and that venereal
disease was said to have been more widespread
after whaling contacts".
Modern times
As President of the Kiribati
National Council of Women (AMAK), Mere agrees
the korakorea issue is a complex one, but believes
that young girls should be in school and better
guided by their parents or guardians.
"It is an issue here because
it is against our culture and tradition. In the
olden days, at age 14 or 15, girls were kept in
the home doing work that assured your future life
as a woman and they were very restricted in their
night time outings. But now Kiribati is in the
swell of globalisation and the issue of korakorea...well,
that's how things happen now."
Modernity, a cash economy and
the loss of tradition has created new vulnerabilities
for coastal communities of the Pacific. Legal
and illegal fishing by foreign vessels have introduced
a range of social problems apart from the environmental
impact of depleted fish stocks. Mere believes
there is a "dangerous cycle" linking
alcohol abuse, violence, sexual abuse and disease
that is afflicting many Pacific nations including
her own.
Communities that once shared
everything now find a new rich/poor divide is
splitting them and AIDS is an ever present danger.
According to the HIV AIDS clinic at Tarawa General
Hospital, Kiribati (population 92,000) has 43
confirmed AIDS cases of which 26 have already
died.
"I'd say almost all the
cases of AIDS here are related to the fishing
industry" claims one of the nurses testing
blood samples. "It is coming from both foreign
fishermen and our own sailors returning home".
More enforcement tools needed
David Yee Ting, Kiribati's Permanent
Secretary for Fisheries, claims that the government
is getting on top of the situation, saying, "Our
new Police Commissioner has been enforcing the
laws to stop girls - and those who help them -
go out to the boats."
He confirms that the situation
got so bad that for a period in 2003, Kiribati
actually banned all Korean fishing boats from
entering Kiribati ports after reports in the Korean
Herald that 30-50 girls, mostly underage, were
servicing the Korean fishermen.
Asked whether he thought Kiribati
was also getting ripped off on its core asset,
fisheries, Ting says "That's a bit harsh,
but yes, we could be getting a better return.
We only have one patrol boat and we don't have
many trained fisheries officers who can be stationed
on boats to monitor catches."
"But as Pacific states
come together through regional bodies like the
FFA (Forum Fisheries Authority, based in Solomon
Islands) and the WCPFC (Western and Central Pacific
Fisheries Commission, based in Marshall Islands),
I believe we will have more collective power to
get a better deal on our fish resources".
Ting is upbeat about the recent
deal signed between the EU and Kiribati, believing
the EU will help develop the local industry with
more local employment and training. Other observers
are not so sanguine:
"I don't think we should
have vessels from 5,000 miles away fishing here.
Why are they fishing here? Because they have stuffed
their own region and now they are coming down
here to do it" is the blunt assessment of
Captain David Lucas, manager of Solander Pacific
Fiji.
"We've got purse-seiners
from the European Union fishing in Kiribati. Why
should they be down here? What have they done
to their own? Who's next?"
Ben Bohane
