January 22, 2015 — Labor and anti-trafficking groups are calling for more steps to be taken to curb rights abuses in Thailand’s lucrative fishing industry, which often relies on trafficked labor from Myanmar and Cambodia. Despite the Thai Government adopts measures to correct the shortcomings, challenges remain for an industry long dependent on low cost labor.
Thailand’s reputation as the world’s third largest global exporter of fish and fishery products, worth more than $8 billion, is under threat amid ongoing charges of labor rights abuses and human trafficking, especially of foreign workers from Cambodia and Myanmar.
Up to 20 percent of workers on Thai fishing boats have faced forced labor says the United Nation’s International Labor Organization (ILO).
Widespread abuses
A coalition of rights groups centered on the seafaring and fishing industry say there are widespread abuses on vessels and the industry remains poorly governed and legislated.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch, in a report on the Thai seafood industry, says labor shortages have led to recruitment brokers targeting men from Cambodia and Myanmar – also known as Burma – and even Thailand.
Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson, says after interviews with men forced to work in the fishing industry, many pointed to regular threats of violence and abuse on board vessels.
“We continually see problems of physical abuse by captains and other officials. Every group of fishermen that Human Rights Watch has talked to said they had seen captains, beating, abusing and in some cases killing fishermen. The fishermen are compelled to keep going; they can’t stop work. We found beatings with tools, with stingray tails, also shootings,” said Robertson.
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