Thailand's seafood industry: state-sanctioned slavery?

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illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing

EU gives six more months to tackle IUU fishing woes
JITRAPORN SENWONG
January 23, 2016


The European Union's delegate, Cesar Deben (R) leaves after a meeting with Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister at the Ministry of Defence in Bangkok, Thailand, 22 January 2016.

Thailand told to take eight measures; Prawit tells visiting team country has done its best.

THE EUROPEAN Union has given Thailand another six months to solve the problem of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and urged authorities to widen the crackdown on use of illegal labour in other sectors.

Cesar Deben, a senior EU official, yesterday met Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan to follow up on the progress of Thai measures to address the IUU issue after the union had issued a yellow-card warning in April last year.

The EU representative also forwarded an eight-point feedback to Prawit regarding the efforts to solve the IUU problem, while pointing to human trafficking as another related key issue.

Overall, the EU team said it was satisfied with Thailand's actions over the past eight to nine months to solve the IUU problem and would continue to monitor progress closely over the next six months before making a decision.

According to the team, Thai authorities should strictly enforce the new laws on fishing practices so that criminal and other cases could be brought against wrongdoers.

Second, fishing vessels and companies that commit wrongdoing should face sanctions. Third, the Thai government should send a clear message to the international community on its measures against violators.

In addition, the EU has suggested that Thailand widen its crackdown against the use of illegal labour in other sectors of the economy besides the fisheries industry, while improving the working conditions and welfare for Thai and migrant workers.

On human trafficking, Thai authorities have been urged to monitor Thai-registered fishing vessels that operate in other countries' territorial waters to ensure that they follow international laws.

The EU team said Thai authorities should speed up action against some seafood-processing plants that are still violating labour laws.

Regarding fishing activities within the country's territorial waters by local fishermen who are now restricted to within 3 nautical miles instead of the previous 12 nautical miles, Thai authorities were asked to pursue close consultations with local communities to resolve the IUU problem.

The EU team expressed hope that there would be clearer results in the next six months on the IUU issue while the Thai side said its measures are aimed at long-term solutions based on international laws, the EU's recommendations and Thailand's new fisheries laws.

At this stage, Thai authorities are |stepping up their public relations |campaign so that fishermen and related parties have a better understanding of the situation.

So far, there have been positive signs concerning the various measures taken by Thai authorities and the EU also suggested that Thailand should inform the international community about its actions.

Panitan Wattanayakorn, adviser to Prawit, who is also defence minister, said the government had assured the EU team of its intention to go ahead with measures to solve the IUU problem.

"The EU is satisfied but we will have to continue tackling the problem for another six months, while it's up to the EU to make its decision afterwards. We also expect significant progress, especially in terms of cases [against wrongdoers] in the next two to three weeks," he said.

Prawit said Thailand would continue its efforts to solve the IUU problem but he was not sure when the EU would remove the warning on Thailand.

He said there would be specific measures to deal with fishing vessels that violated international laws in foreign countries' territorial waters.

"We have been tackling this problem, but it's not enough in terms of the problem in other countries' territorial waters and the use of illegal and child labour," he said.

He added that at this stage there was no clear indication from the EU when the yellow-card warning would be removed.

nationmultimedia.com

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At Least 30 Trafficking Victims Rescued In Phuket
KHIN OO THA
Translation by Thet Ko Ko.
Friday, January 29, 2016


Rescued trafficking victims with members of MAT on January 28, 2016.
(Photo: Myanmar Association in Thailand)

CHIANG MAI, Thailand reported on a raid of a Bangkok shrimp peeling factory which freed more than 60 Burmese nationals being held captive by another Burmese employment broker who had trafficked them.

More than 500 Burmese men were rescued from Indonesia earlier this year after being trafficked and enslaved on fishing boats.

irrawaddy.com

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Thais register 70,000 foreign workers in scandal-mired seafood sector
Friday, 12 February 2016



Thai authorities have registered more than 70,000 previously undocumented foreign workers in its fishing industry, navy officials said Thursday, part of a bid by the junta to stave off a potentially ruinous ban on its seafood exports.

Thailand is under intense pressure to overhaul its lucrative fishing sector.

Last spring the European Union hit the country with a "yellow card" warning, threatening to ban all seafood exports unless the military government tackled rampant illegal fishing and labour abuses among its fleets.

EU officials visited the kingdom last month for an inspection to decide whether a ban goes ahead, a move that could cost Thailand up to $1 billion in lost revenue.

Thailand is the world's third largest exporter of seafood -- a status that rights groups say is achieved through illegal overfishing and a reliance on low-paid trafficked workers from neighbouring countries.

The junta government of General Prayut Chan-O-Cha has struggled to revive the kingdom's slumping economy and is desperate to avoid any costly sanctions on the vital sector.

In a briefing with foreign journalists on Thursday, navy, fisheries and labour officials insisted the clampdown on illegal practices was yielding results.

"It's a national agenda, and the Thai prime minister has stressed that he has zero tolerance on this issue," foreign ministry spokesman SekWannamethee said.

The junta says documenting foreign workers, many of whom illegally enter Thailand from Myanmar and Cambodia and are easily exploited, will help end the cycle of abuse.

Of an estimated 200,000 undocumented foreigners working in the industry, 70,000 had now been registered, said Commander PiyananKawmanee, assistant spokesman of a Navy-led taskforce heading up the crackdown.

"Around 50,000 were working in (fish) processing plants, the rest on fishing vessels," he said.

Those who had been documented would be allowed to continue working for at least two years, officials said.

More than 8,000 fishing vessels have also had their registrations revoked in the last year, they added.

The military say successive civilian Thai governments failed to tackle systemic problems within key industries like fishing and aviation -- another sector that is facing the threat of international regulatory sanctions.

"During civilian administrations... sometimes we couldn't enforce efficiently," said Vice Admiral JumpolLumpiganon, who added that the EU's yellow card warning and the junta's rise to power had become a "catalyst" to push reforms.

Critics say the military's repeated interventions in politics over the last decade hobbled any civilian government's chances of instituting long term reforms.

Officials said they did not know when the EU would make its decision but they were hopeful Thailand could avoid any sanctions.

"We are confident that thanks to the laws and regulations passed last year we have the tools to ensure that no underage or forced labour will occur in our processing factories as well as fishing vessels," said ArrugPhrommanee, director general of the Ministry of labour.

mizzima.com

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Activist faces charge under new Assembly ActThe summons.
Photo courtesy of Banjong Nasae



The activity outside Government House on 4 February.
Photo courtesy of Banjong Nasae

prachatai.com

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Slavery and trafficking continue in Thai fishing industry, claim activists
Thursday 25 February 2016

Environmental Justice Foundation says abuses in Thai seafood sector persist despite government insistence that new legal measures are working

4096.jpg

Photograph: Barbara Walton/EPA Kate Hodal

Slavery, trafficking, murder and corruption at all levels of government still pervade threatening a ban on seafood importsEnvironmental Justice Foundation (EJF)Investigations by the Guardian over the past two years found that Thai and migrant slaves are used on trawlers that catch fish sold in the US, UK and elsewhere in Europe.

In 2014, downgraded Thailand to tier three, the lowest ranking, and the country has remained there.

, Thai authorities have enacted legislation to curb trafficking and illegal fishingThai Union Groupamong the signatories. Charoen Pokphand (CP) Foods, which the Guardian previously exposed as having slavery in its supply chain, is also a signatory..

An EU delegation visited Thailand last month $1bn a year.

The military government ruling Thailand, which came to power in a 2014 couptold the Bangkok PostInstitutes of Security and International Studiesmore than 90% of those working in the fishing sectorThailand

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Revealed: how the Thai fishing industry trafficks, imprisons and enslaves

youtube.com

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05 Mar 2016

A man from Myanmar who spent more than a decade as a slave on a Thai fishing boat shares his story.


This trafficked fisherman describes being beaten and forced to 'work like an ox'
[Samuel Black/Al Jazeera]

In recent years, migrant men from poor countries in Southeast Asia who were forced to work on Thai fishing boats have begun to come forward, revealing a dirty secret that powered the world's third-largest exporter of seafood.

Thailand's $7bn industry has in part been built on the backs of trafficked labour, with thousands of men from places such as Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia being sold into slavery.

The United States consumes more of Thailand's catch than any other country. According to investigations by the Associated Press and The New York Times, the ill-gotten fish is known to have entered the supply chain of popular brands such as Chicken of the Sea tuna and Fancy Feast pet food.

While reporting for the film Seafood Slaves, Fault Lines connected with dozens of men in Indonesia who were waiting to be repatriated to their home country, Myanmar.

Since 2011, about 1,500 men have been repatriated back to Myanmar. According to figures from the Bangkok-based, anti-trafficking group Project Issara, which has examined 478 of those cases, on average, the fishermen have been given only $66 in compensation for each month they were enslaved. Some 88 percent of the migrant workers received less than half of the salary they were promised - or even worse, no pay at all.

In January, Fault Lines spoke to a middle-aged man from Myanmar at a camp set up for trafficked fishermen in Ambon, Indonesia. At that time, about 81 men at the camp were still waiting to collect their wages and return to their homeland.

This is a translation of the story he told of his experience working in the Thai fishing industry:

I worked on a farm before. I worked on rubber farms. When I worked in my village, I couldn't support my family. I thought I could find more money here. That's why I left Myanmar. I heard there was good income here. That's why I left. I came through a broker. I didn't know I would be deceived.

Now I'm 55, almost 56. I left home about 20 years ago.

My father died a long time ago. Then my mother passed away while I was working here. While I was working here, my children sometimes didn't have enough food. I have three children.

When I lost contact with them, I was disappointed. I asked the boat's captain if I could go back home, but he wouldn't let me go. Later I ran away when we docked, and he asked police to arrest me and send me back to the boat. When I got back on to the boat, he beat me.

When some of my repatriated friends inquired for me, I got back in phone contact with my family. I had three or four conversations with my daughter, but I didn't have enough money to refill the phone again. She asked me to come back. I told her, I was waiting for my money, for them to pay my salary. But it has been one year now, and I keep waiting and waiting.

My wife left. She got remarried. She didn't know that I was in Indonesia. I couldn't contact her. She might think I'm dead. I got married when I was 30. I miss her. I miss my children, too.

I have been staying here more than a year. I don't have money. I do some work at a grocery store, and they give me food. I stay here because I can't go back. Nobody wants to stay here. It's not the same as my own country. I have become merely a beggar now.

I want to see my children and I want to see my siblings, too. I don't know how long I have to wait. We can only go back when they [the International Organization for Migration] send us back. I really want to go back home.

Gruelling work


Fault Lines met trafficked workers in an Indonesian camp as they waited to return home
[Samuel Black] [Daylife]


I have never worked such a job before, and I wasn't skillful in the beginning. The captain beat me with a stingray tail; he would beat me with anything near him. While we were sorting fish, he would sit on the upper deck and throw a lead sinker tied to a rope at us. That's how we were tortured.

The worst condition was when there were big waves. If we got a large amount of fish at the same time, we couldn't take breaks. We were not allowed to eat. We had to eat secretly, and if the captain saw it, he would beat us. He only worried about his fish being rotten, so he forced us to work. He didn't let us rest even when we were sick. He forced us to work like oxen.

They keep all the big fish. They threw away the small fish. If we got big shrimp, we were not allowed to eat them. If we were to steal and eat the shrimp, he would beat us and deduct money from our salary.

I blame only the captain for what I went through. He's the one who forced us to work like oxen. I was sorting nets once, which involved climbing up to the mast. When I came down, he said, "Why you work so slow?" And he beat me with an iron pipe. He kept beating me during 10 years of work.

Waiting for payment

There were six crew members from Myanmar and some Cambodians and Thais on board. When the boat went back to Thailand, the entire crew was left onshore because the captain didn't want to pay us money. The captain, mechanic and other Thai crew, about three to four guys, went back, leaving us behind.

I worked on two boats. On the first boat, I was beaten by the captain. Later I worked on another boat for 14 months. I got payment on that boat. After I left the first boat, two and a half years ago, I didn't have any money. So I tried to get a job on another boat here. But later boat operations stopped, and I ended up here, where I've been for the last year.

The Thai company frequently told me they would pay me, but it has been a year since they told me that. I don't know much about how they profited but I want my salary back.

I asked them how much I would get. They said I would get 10,000 baht [about $280] since I also worked as a cook. But I don't even have clothes now. I have to take clothes from others. If they had paid us money regularly, my family would not have fractured.

Although I came to work, my family couldn't eat from what I have earned. My family was broken apart. Do you understand that feeling? My life was destroyed. I can't see my children. I lost my wife.

I can't even express my feelings in words. It is very painful. I hate those Thais. If I could bring that captain here, I wouldn't take money. I want to beat him in the same way he beat me. I want to sacrifice my life to take his life.

aljazeera.com

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^

I can't even express my feelings in words.

It is very painful.

I hate those Thais.

If I could bring that captain here, I wouldn't take money.

I want to beat him in the same way he beat me.

I want to sacrifice my life to take his life.

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Seafood Slaves
09 Mar 2016

We travel to Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand to investigate slavery in the multi-billion dollar seafood industry.

In 2015, evidence of slavery on a massive scale surfaced in the remote islands of eastern Indonesia.

Illegal fishing in Indonesian territorial waters had risen to an extreme level, but many of the Thai fishing boats responsible harboured a much worse secret aboard.

The way they forced us to work is worse than slaves. Slaves would have their own time, and we didn't have any. We didn't have time to sleep. We didn't have time to eat. We only had time to work.
A trafficked fisherman

In the last year, over 2,000 men have come forward who were enslaved on Thai fishing boats in Indonesian waters, working for as long as a decade without pay.

Thousands of migrants from Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos in search of higher-paying jobs were lured onto Thai fishing boats with empty promises about jobs "on the other side" and into, in some cases, years of ongoing seaborne labour.

Many of the enslaved fishermen were facing abuse, ranging from physical assault to lack of food and sleep.

"The way they forced us to work is worse than slaves. Slaves would have their own time, and we didn't have any. We didn't have time to sleep. We didn't have time to eat. We only had time to work," says one of the trafficked fishermen.

The illegal fishing boats and their cheap crews were essential to one of the world's most important food suppliers - Thailand's $7bn fishing industry.

Thailand is the world's third-largest seafood exporter, and the United States consumes more of that seafood - including tuna and shrimp - than any other country.

"It's almost impossible to separate what effectively are slave-caught fish from fish that are caught through more legitimate means.... It is in fact part of the business model. One of the reasons why your shrimp cocktail at your local restaurant doesn't cost you an arm and a leg, is because the labour cost is so low," says Paul Dillion from the International Organization for Migration.

How did thousands of men end up slaves to the global demand for cheap seafood? After years of unpaid labour, will they receive any justice at all? And will companies in the US that profit from similar activity be held accountable?

Fault Lines travels to Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand to trace the hidden costs of cheap seafood.

aljazeera.com

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15 trafficked Cambodian laborers rescued from Thai fishing boats
Editor: Hou Qiang

PHNOM PENH, March 16 (Xinhua) -- The Thai authorities have rescued 15 trafficked Cambodian men from two Thai fishing vessels in southern Ranong province, Chum Sounry, a spokesman for the Cambodian ministry of foreign affairs, said Wednesday.

The victims, aged between 19 and 62 years old, have been temporarily living in a rehabilitation center for trafficked victims in the province, pending testifying before the court on March 24 in a case against the fishing boat owners, he said.

"The court will consider allowing the laborers to leave Thailand when it gets enough answers," he said in a statement.

According to the spokesman, the fishing boat owners agreed to pay 25,000 Thai Baht (713 U.S. dollars) to each of the laborers.

Trafficked fishermen are frequently forced to work long hours and physically and psychologically abused. They are often unpaid and forced to serve on voyages for months or even years.

Last year, some 573 trafficked Cambodian migrant workers and citizens were rescued in seven countries and returned home, according to a report of the ministry of foreign affairs.

news.xinhuanet.com

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US: Forced labor continues on Thai fishing vessels
Apr 13

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The State Department says forced labor on Thai fishing vessels has continued in the past year despite legal reforms and arrests following an Associated Press investigation into the country's seafood industry.

The department made the assessment in its annual global review of human rights practices, released Wednesday by Secretary of State John Kerry. The report covers the 2015 calendar year.

The report finds that the Thai government has reaffirmed its "zero tolerance" policy for human trafficking and updated many laws, but a lack of legal clarity on what constitutes forced labor has undermined efforts to identify trafficking victims and prosecute abuses.

The department cites the AP investigative series on slavery in the seafood industry that resulted in the rescue of 2,000 men, a dozen arrests and millions of dollars' worth of seizures.

ap.org

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EU keeps sanctions threat on Thai seafood
RAF CASERT
Apr 21

BRUSSELS (AP) -- The European Union is maintaining the threat of a seafood import ban on Thailand because the global exporter is still not doing enough to improve its fisheries and labor practices, officials said Thursday.

The 28-nation EU is keeping up the pressure because even some Thai legislation enacted last year to curb illegal practices was not sufficiently followed up by action over the past months, two EU officials with knowledge of the ongoing talks told the Associated Press.

Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is seen as a major contributor to dwindling fish stocks across the globe, while in Thailand it has also led to illegal labor practices amounting in some cases to slave labor.

"We continue to have serious concerns about the steps taken by the Thai authorities to fight illegal and unregulated fishing activities.

This means that further action by the EU Commission cannot be ruled out," said one official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the talks. Thai authorities insist they are working hard to fundamentally change the practices of the past.

Thailand, the third-largest global seafood exporter, with a stake of 8.1 percent of global exports, needs the wealthy European market to maintain its seafood prominence. Annual Thai fish exports to the EU are estimated to be worth between 575 million and 730 million euros ($650 million and $825 million).

Beyond illegal fishing though, Thailand also faces the slavery issue. The Associated Press has exposed during a two year investigation labor abuses amounting to slavery. In addition to freeing more than 2,000 slaves, the reporting resulted in the arrest of a dozen alleged traffickers-so far eight have been convicted and sentenced-the seizing of millions of dollars' worth of seafood and vessels, several lawsuits, and legal actions by governments and corporations.

EU officials have said that the slavery and labor issues are intimately intertwined with the illegal fishing industry, and that a cleanup of the sector will automatically also have an impact on the labor situation.

The news that Thailand would continue to work under a so-called yellow card threat came Thursday as the EU Commission was assessing other nations from across the world whether they would be punished for unsustainable fishing that further weakens threatened fish stocks or whether reforms in some nations would result in lifting the threat of sanctions. Thailand was given a yellow card exactly one year ago.

EU officials said that dialogue is still proving difficult.

"Lately we have been receiving less evidence of reform from them and more evidence from third countries and NGOs" of illegal practices or a lack of enforcement, the official said.

Both sides are to meet again next month in Brussels amid hope progress can be made.

ap.org

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21 April 2016


In this file photo, Burmese crew members await departure on a commercial fishing boat in Thailand.
(Photo: Reuters) Bangkok Post

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Cambodian Men Testify in Thai Fishing Boat Trafficking Case
ALISA TANG
Friday, May 13, 2016



(Photo: Reuters)

BANGKOK

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Indonesia Nabs 3 Boats With 79 Trafficked Fishermen on Board
17 May 2016


Fishing boats in Ranong province, 30 June 2015.

JAKARTA,