A fishing boat far from shore needs no walls; the ocean itself makes escape nearly impossible. Captured men do dangerous, heavy work under constant threat of violence, surrounded by endless open water that only sharpens their confinement.
A survivor who drew what he remembered could explain his missing years to his own family and show strangers a world kept out of sight. He believed that if people truly saw what happened, they would stop it, and drawing violence plainly, without drama, shows how routine it was.
Forced labor often begins with an ordinary emergency: a man too poor to pay a hospital bill crosses a border for work. Recruiters who look like employers promise a few months' job and a ride home, then hold their recruits captive for years.
In a place where violence is routine, a skill others value can keep a captive alive. An untrained man survived years of brutality largely by tattooing his fellow workers, turning a talent into protection.
Getting free from one captor can lead straight into the hands of another, as corrupt police resell escapees into new forced work on land. Even reaching home is hard: years of unexplained absence leave families angry and confused, and coming back into ordinary life is its own struggle.