SURABHI VANALIA
A key ingredient in Thailand’s billion-dollar seafood industry has recently come under scrutiny following a report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW).[1]The Thai government estimates that there are around 300,000 people working in the fishing industry, constituting mostly of migrants from other Southeast Asian countries that were promised employment and a better life. Migrant workers are not protected under Thai labour law; therefore, they are incapable of objecting to their working conditions. The findings of the report reveal that migrant fishermen are subject to dire conditions, such as physical abuse, lack of food, long working hours and lack of pay.
In 2015, following the initial reports, the European Union had placed a ‘yellow card’ on Thailand’s industry, effectively to warn that if conditions are unimproved, there would be a ban on its seafood imports. Meanwhile, the US had lowered Thailand’s trade to Tier 3, the lowest ranking, on its human trafficking index, harming Thailand’s trading relationships. In response to these findings, the Thai government has implemented reforms such as introducing a ‘pink card’ registration scheme for all migrant workers. This is to comply with ILO regulations that stipulate that all migrant workers must be provided with legal documentation and accounted for on crew lists. These changes have improved Thailand’s trade relations as the ‘yellow card’ has been lifted earlier this year and Thailand promoted to Tier 2. Nonetheless, the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) warns that there are significant improvements to be made.[2]
Further regulations such as ‘port-in, port-out’ has also been implemented, this system requires boats to report for inspections. Measures such as vessel monitoring and limiting time for vessels at sea for 30 days have led to some improvements for the fishermen, yet the problem remains rampant. The report from HRW posits that the government’s efforts in reviewing fishing practices are largely superficial. There have been no investigations and interviews conducted with migrant workers that would reveal their true working and living conditions. According to HRW’s report, police, military and other officials threaten migrant workers with impunity which explains the reluctance to investigate further. Buyers and retailers selling Thai seafood are also accountable for the continuation of forced slavery in fishing, with many major food brands and supermarket chains turning a blind eye to the production method.[3] Shortages in Thailand’s fishing sector, along with increased demand in Europe and US for cheap prawn has driven this market for cheap labour.
Thailand’s forced labour trade appears to have another odious facet, as there have been links with the Thai fishermen in their role in transporting Rohingya workers to traffickers. [4]Desperate to leave the Rakhine state for fears of being executed, they are promised with refuge, instead they are sold on to boats, unable to leave. An increasing number of fishermen are turning towards trade in slaves due to the low supplies of fish resulting from ecological destruction and overfishing. Trading in slavery is a lucrative industry, generating more than $35 billion annually, and it has been unabated in Southeast Asia for decades. The Thai government has taken steps to shut down active Rohingya trafficking camps and pushing for reforms in its seafood sector after the initial findings in 2015. Despite these attempts, the Rohingya crisis continues to provide opportunities for this trade to burgeon.
There must be
further action taken by all stakeholders that are profiting from this trade, this
includes the Thai government, as well as those of export countries, and multinationals
corporations that are benefitting from the low prices of slave labour.
[1] https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/01/23/thailand-forced-labor-trafficking-persist-fishing-fleets
[2] https://ejfoundation.org/what-we-do/oceans/combating-seafood-slavery
[3] https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/jun/10/supermarket-prawns-thailand-produced-slave-labour
[4] https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/jul/20/thai-fishing-industry-implicated-enslavement-deaths-rohingya
