Human trafficking continues to be not only widespread, but also well known within Thailand’s fishing industry, said Steve Trent, executive director of the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF).
EJF on Wednesday released a report of its investigation into human trafficking in Thai fisheries. Though the report focuses on the plight of 14 Myanmar men trafficked on fishing boats, Trent said the problem extends to all areas of the seafood industry in Thailand, where a thriving industry is fueled by cheap, undocumented labor from neighboring countries with fewer economic opportunities.
“I’ve been working in this kind of area for 25 years and I’ve worked in over 40 countries and I’ve seen a lot of things. My impression in what is going on here, is the trafficking in Thailand is very widespread,” he said.
Trent said his organization is lobbying for a downgrade of Thailand’s ranking on the U.S. State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, which should be updated in June.
He is also working with retailers on their supply chains to help them prevent sourcing products produced with trafficked labor. He said meals made with unbranded shrimp are one of the products that can easily make their way to supermarket shelves. That shrimp may have eaten fishmeal made from ground up trash fish caught by a trawler that was staffed by trafficked workers and then transferred at sea to another boat.
Within Thailand, lackadaisical enforcement contributes to the problem, according to the report. In the case of the 14 rescued fishermen, for example, the six interviewed by EJF reported that the broker responsible for their trafficking had also forced them to work on a rubber plantation belonging to a senior Thai police officer while they were in port.
“Most people there within the industry and within the enforcement agencies that should be protecting these people and preventing abuses are fully aware of what is going on. I think it is a common practice that is really quite widely known and widely accepted,” Trent said.
The 14 men from Myanmar had just returned from six months at sea on three separate vessels. The six interviewed by EJF said all 14 had been trafficked and forced to work for up to 20 hours per day with little or no pay. They said their months at sea were often accompanied by forced detention, physical abuse and threats of violence. Two of the men interviewed said they had seen a fellow crewmember tortured and executed for trying to escape and the murder of at least five other individuals.
Their rescue came in March when one of the men who had been able to make some money selling dried squid to a boat they transferred fish to bought a mobile phone and contacted one of the other men’s family members. The family contacted the helpline of the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP). The crewmen are currently being held in a detention center in Southern Thailand, where it’s likely they’ll remain for at least a year.
“The Thai legal system is slow and cumbersome, and it’s not being leveraged to help them. It’s being leveraged to get people off the hook,” said Trent.
Pressure — or at least bad publicity — may arrive soon, when the U.S. State Department is expected to release its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report. Countries on Tier 1 of the list are in compliance with the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards. Those on Tier 2 are not in compliance but making significance steps toward improvement while Tier 3 countries are neither in compliance nor doing anything about it. The United States may take sanctions against Tier 3 countries, which currently include Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
Thailand has been on the Tier 2 Watch List for three years. By law, countries on the watch list are supposed to be automatically downgraded after two years if they can’t show they are making improvements, but the United States allowed Thailand to retain its status for an extra year.
“[Tier 3] can basically lead to trade restrictions — but also the message it sends out to industry is watch what you’re buying and watch very closely. It could be quite expensive for Thailand and the entire seafood processing industry,” said Trent.
But he said EJF is not attempting to punish the industry with “brand attacks” or “naming and shaming,” but to work with it in solving the problem.
“I’d really like to stress our interest in working with all partners, in particular, industry. From my perspective, industry can act quicker,” said Trent.
“It’s a simple multiplier effect, if you like. The more people who get on this the more we’ll get back on totality,” he added. “We’re in dialogue with a number of major European retailers and discussing their supply chains. I have been moderately surprised by how many of them are waking up to this issue.”
