The Walmart Foundation has awarded the International Justice Mission (IJM) with a third grant, allowing the anti-slavery organization to continue in its efforts to address human trafficking in the Thai fishing industry, the entities announced on Tuesday, 11 June, before the official kickoff of the SeaWeb Seafood Summit in Bangkok, Thailand.
The years-long collaboration between the foundation and IJM has been geared toward eradicating an environment of isolation and exploitation of workers in Thailand, which has become a source, transit, and destination country for traffickers seeking higher profits through the use of forced labor practices – as was evidenced by a study conducted by IJM and funded by the Walmart Foundation’s first grant.
Surveying migrant fishermen working on Thai fishing boats between 2011 until 2016, the study uncovered the widespread presence of labor trafficking with frequent patterns of abuse, resulting in a majority of laborers averaging 16-hour workdays. In such a climate, “paired with a criminal justice system that does not enforce existing anti-trafficking laws or hold criminals accountable, slavery thrives,” IJM concluded.
A second grant from the foundation, along with funding from the U.S. Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, allowed for IJM to lay the foundation for a long-term regional anti-trafficking program – one that “transcends national borders and requires a response as agile and networked as the traffickers that operate in the Myanmar and Cambodian recruitment corridors,” the organization explained. For the program, IJM established a local team of law enforcement development, legal, aftercare, and case management professionals who have, in turn, proactively developed relationships and credibility with key government agencies and partner organizations in and around Thailand, it said.
These initiatives have helped police build cases against cross-border networks and ensure the effectiveness of cross-border law enforcement and prosecution, according to IJM. A recent example of this came in May 2019, when IJM supported the Department of Special Investigation, the Office of Attorney General, and the Ministry of Social Development and Human Services in Thailand to convict a Cambodian national who has played a primary role in transporting hundreds – if not thousands – of Cambodian migrant workers and selling them to Thai fishing vessel captains and owners.
The trafficker has been ordered to pay THB 500,000 (USD 15,000, EUR 14,106) in compensation to each victim in the case, a landmark decision, noted Andrey Sawchenko, field officer director for IJM in Bangkok. Moreover, in a precedent-setting move, Sawchenko said the Thai government has also awarded additional compensation for the victims residing outside of Thailand – who reported the case from their home country – from its trafficking in persons fund.
Prosecuting cases of forced labor trafficking on Thai fishing boats is relatively rare in Thailand, Sawchenko said. It’s even rarer still to ascertain convictions in such cases, he added. In 2017, only two percent of trafficking prosecutions in Thailand were cases of forced labor on fishing boats, according to the most recent statistics from the Thai government.
“This is a strong sign of forward momentum in the way that both source countries, like Cambodia, and destination countries, like Thailand, can collaborate in cross-border cases of human trafficking,” said IJM. “It serves to build the community’s confidence in the justice system and encourage more victims to come forward to report cases and support enforcement efforts.”
“Because of the Walmart Foundation’s investments in IJM over the last several years, there are mend who are now protection from forced labor slavery, and a powerful trafficker is in jail. When laws are enforced, ending slavery becomes possible,” Sawchenko said. “But, we are never going to achieve systemic, sustainable change without partnerships that span both the public and private sectors, so we are grateful to the Walmart Foundation for positively impacting the entire seafood sourcing industry through their strategic focus on advancing supply chain sustainability and funding support to IJM.”
Corporations encouraging rule of law and governments enforcement as well as engagement from civil society can yield immense, positive change, Sawchenko and IJM said. “Laws are enforced, traffickers are deterred from illegally sourcing slave labor, capacity to respond and serve vulnerable groups is fostered, and businesses can gain more transparency in their global supply chains,” they noted.
Karrie Denniston, senior director at Walmart.org, which represents the philanthropic efforts of Walmart and the Walmart Foundation, reiterated the concept of businesses being able to effect considerable change when they collaborate and embrace philanthropy.
“As powerful as the business is, no one company, no one government, and no one sector alone is going to be able to solve some of these big issues,” Denniston said. “And that is where we start to think about the world of philanthropy ... and that’s where Walmart.org comes in.”
“We believe in the role of philanthropy can play to support strategic and collaborative efforts with needed resources that help secure such positive outcomes as have occurred in Thailand in the past month. Philanthropy can serve as a catalyst to support stronger systems, for example, by investing in infrastructure, skills, and capacity building so these outcomes can be replicated in other places,” she added. “We are encouraged by the substantial progress IJM has been able to make on combatting forced labor over the last two years, and we are hopeful that the momentum will continue to create results at an even faster rate.”
An international organization, IJM is currently working in 19 program offices across 11 countries working to combat slavery, trafficking, and other forms of violence against the poor.
Walmart.org hones its focus on strengthening demand for responsible labor practices; investing in data and transparency; enhancing worker and community engagement, and supporting strong policy and regulation. The representative entity operates on the same core values driving Walmart as a business and as a foundation, Denniston explained.
“Walmart as company was founded with a purpose – and it was to save people money, and to help them to live better. Over the more than 50 years that the company has been in operation, that purpose has remained at the core of everything the company does,” she said.
Over the years, however, the way Walmart, the Walmart Foundation, and Walmart.org refer to these values has evolved, according to Denniston.
“Today, we talk about how we create shared value for the world. Shared value is this idea that we can increase business value by increasing and helping work that happens for the most important needs in society – saying it in another way, we can help transform society by the way we choose to do business. That’s really powerful, it’s a huge obligation, it’s a huge responsibility, and it’s something that we take incredibly seriously,” she said, adding that funding endeavors such as those being undertaken by the IJM are ways Walmart.org creates shared value for Thailand and the rest of the world.
