British consumers may be unwittingly purchasing seafood linked to illegal fishing practices and severe human rights abuses, according to a damning new report and film by the Environmental Justice Foundation and Open Seas

The report, ‘Criminal Catches: How to Stop the Supply of Illegal Seafood to the UK’, reveals that post-Brexit, critical checks on imported seafood have plummeted, leaving the UK government ‘effectively blind’ to whether fish sold in shops and restaurants is tainted by slavery, forced labour or environmental destruction.

More than a quarter of UK seafood imports now come from countries flagged by the EU with ‘yellow card’ warnings for failing to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.