Filipino migrant fisher's death shows industry abuses

Sam Dela Cruz’s documents show that he died of cardiac arrest due to acute kidney failure in the early morning of July 28, 2018. Previous medical records certified that he was fit for sea duties. - Thomson Reuters Foundation

TUKA, Philippines: When the body of 25-year-old Filipino fisherman Sam Dela Cruz was returned to his shipmates after his sudden death in Somalia, they placed his body in the ship's freezer to take him home to his family.

Their mourning was cut short the next day when armed Somali officers took Dela Cruz's remains to bury him in a public cemetery in the port city of Bosaso, where their Chinese-flagged fishing vessel, the Han Rong 355, was docked in 2018, according to Gilbert, another Filipino on the ship who used a pseudonym due to safety concerns.