19 June 2021

[...] Eritara Aati Kaierua [...] the 40-year-old father-of-four was found dead in a cabin on the Win Far No 636, a Taiwanese-flagged fishing vessel that by that time was in waters off Nauru.

[...]

But over a year later, Tekarara is still waiting for answers from the investigation she was promised.

The death of Kaierua, who was employed by the Kiribati Ministry of Fisheries, is the latest in a string of observer deaths and alleged abuses around the world that attract scant attention, and few penalties.

[...]

According to the Association of Professional Observers, there have been over a dozen cases of observers dying on the job since 2009 alone, including three involving Kiribati nationals.

[...]

After his body was returned to Kiribati and the autopsy performed, the ship was impounded and two crew members detained and questioned.

But then progress on the investigation ground to a halt. Though the high court refused an application by the ship’s owners to have it released in June, the Win Far was allowed on its way in October. [...]

The family had numerous other concerns about the investigation, not least the two further pathology reports that were made without examining Kaierua’s body and which reportedly concluded that he died of hypertension, or high blood pressure.

[...]

Liz Mitchell, president of the non-profit Association of Professional Observers (APO), said that Kaierua’s death is typical of a fisheries observers’ case, in that often there is very little information about what happened, and that if there is any investigation at all, it is an incomplete one.