By MARGIE MASON, MARTHA MENDOZA and ESTHER HTUSAN
Indonesia (AP) - A year-long AP investigation finds that hundreds of men in a remote Indonesian island and its surrounding waters are forced to fish, with some of the slave catch eventually reaching U.S. dinner plates.
The men often endure severe beatings, 22-hour shifts and even confinement.
The men the AP interviewed on Benjina were mostly from Myanmar, also known as Burma, one of the poorest countries in the world.
The slave catch often enters global commerce from Thailand, mixing in with other fish. U.S. Customs records show that several Thai factories ship to America. The AP tracked one such shipment.
Tainted fish can wind up in the supply chains of some major grocery and retail stores like Kroger, Albertsons Safeway and Wal-Mart, as well as in popular brands of canned pet food like Fancy Feast, Meow Mix and Iams.
Firms contacted about the investigation denounced the practices and said they would institute safeguards to examine supply sources.
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, Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press National Writer based in California