Saving Seafood

Trafficking Boss, Accomplices Arrested in Raid on Thai Shrimp Factory

July 13, 2015 — CHIANG MAI, Thailand — A joint task force of Thai police and anti-human trafficking personnel last week arrested five accomplices and the leader of a human trafficking ring near Bangkok, following the rescue of scores of migrants from Burma who had been confined in a shrimp peeling facility.

Maung Htone, a Burmese national from Mon State, was apprehended along with four employment brokers and the owner of the facility, according to a migrant rights advocate who assisted with the operation that freed 64 captive laborers.

“[We] had to go there about three or four times, and we closely observed and took photos before we could raid the factory,” Khun Naung Oo of the Myanmar Association of Thailand (MAT), which works collaboratively with Thai authorities to identify and rescue trafficking victims, told The Irrawaddy.

“Most people dare not go there, as it is a very notorious place.”

The migrants, mostly women from Mon State and Tenasserim Division, were among some 400 employees at the facility, he said. Those removed from the site by a rescue team last Wednesday had been confined in the facility with no work documents.

Read the full story at The Irrawaddy 

 

Thailand arrests 2 alleged brokers who sent slaves to boats

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — July 1, 2015 — Two Thai men described as key figures in a human trafficking ring that provides slave crews for fishing boats were arrested, officials said Wednesday, as new regulations aimed at cracking down on illegal fishing took effect.

The two suspects were the latest to be arrested following an Associated Press investigation into slavery in Southeast Asia’s fishing industry.

In April, the EU gave Thailand six months to drastically combat illegal and unregulated fishing or face a seafood import ban. Thailand is a major exporter of seafood, with yearly revenues of almost 5 billion euros ($5.4 billion), and an EU ban would seriously affect the industry.

Officials from Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation told a news conference the two men were “big figures” in a human trafficking syndicate in Samut Sakorn province, the country’s biggest fishing hub, and had lured about 60 victims a year since 2008.

Chayuthphong Charoenporn, 50, and Samruay Chatkrod, 53, hired middlemen to find workers at train stations, bus terminals and other public places, said Lt. Col. Komvich Padhanarath.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald

 

Thai Authorities Bust Largest Human Trafficking Ring to Date Ahead of US’s July TIP Report

June 23, 2015 — Thai police said on Tuesday they had “shown sincerity” and wrapped up the country’s biggest investigation into human trafficking, as rights groups questioned whether they had even scratched the surface.

Thailand began a crackdown on trafficking networks and suspected camps hidden deep in its jungle-carpeted mountains last month following the discovery of more than 30 bodies buried in camps in the south.

Police have arrested 56 suspects – including politicians, police, government officials, businessmen and an army general – and issued arrest warrants for 63.

Aek Angsananont, police deputy commissioner-general, called the probe “the biggest human trafficking investigation in Thailand’s history”.

Around 1,000 police officers, many of them based in southern Thailand, took part in the investigation, Aek said, without elaborating on any ongoing or future probes.

Police have sent 19 cases filled with more than 100,000 document sheets to the Office of the Attorney General which will have until July 24 to decide whether to file charges, Aek said.

Read the full story from Reuters