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AP Tracks Slave Boats to Papua New Guinea

July 27, 2015 — From space, the fishing boats are just little white specks floating in a vast stretch of blue water off Papua New Guinea. But zoom in and there’s the critical evidence: Two trawlers loading slave-caught seafood onto a massive refrigerated cargo ship.

The trawlers fled a slave island in Indonesia with captives of a brutal Southeast Asian trafficking ring whose catch reaches the United States. Hundreds of men were freed after they were discovered there earlier this year, but 34 boats loaded with workers left for new fishing grounds before help arrived — they remain missing.

After a four-month investigation, The Associated Press has found that at least some of them ended up in a narrow, dangerous strait nearly 1,000 miles away. The proof comes from accounts from recently returned slaves, satellite beacon tracking, government records, interviews with business insiders and fishing licenses. The location is also confirmed in images from space taken by one of the world’s highest resolution satellite cameras, upon the AP’s request.

The skippers have changed their ships’ names and flags to evade authorities, but hiding is easy in the world’s broad oceans. Traffickers operate with impunity across boundaries as fluid as the waters. Laws are few and hardly enforced. And depleted fish stocks have pushed boats farther out into seas that are seldom even glimpsed, let alone governed.

This lack of regulation means that even with the men located, bringing them to safety may prove elusive.

Officials from Papua New Guinea working with the International Organization for Migration said they were not aware of human trafficking cases in the area but are investigating. Numerous other agencies — including Interpol, the United Nations and the U.S. State and Defense departments — told the AP they don’t have the authority to get involved.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New York Times

Coalition Writes Secretary Kerry to Support Tier 3 Designation for Thailand

July 27, 2015 — The following joint letter to Secretary of State John Kerry was released by Human Rights Watch:

Dear Secretary Kerry:

We write today to support the State Department’s decision to maintain Thailand’s Tier 3 designation in the 2015 Global Trafficking in Persons Report. We believe the Tier 3 ranking, as well as the research and recommendations contained in the report, will be an important tool for governments, international institutions, companies and investors to continue to press the Thai authorities to enact more substantive reforms to end the labor trafficking that can be found in many sectors of Thailand’s economy, including seafood.

This decision comes at a vital time for leveraging change from the Thai government in its anti-trafficking efforts. Last year’s downgrade to Tier 3 in the 2014 TIP Report, the decision by the European Union to issue Thailand a “yellow card” for its failure to adequately monitor its fishing industry, and high-profile global media exposés of human trafficking in Thailand’s fishing industry have together produced an unprecedented level of international pressure on Thailand to address its significant human trafficking problem. The Thai government has demonstrated its willingness to respond to that pressure, and has taken a few encouraging actions. In particular, efforts to register migrant workers, passage of the Regulation to Protect Labour in the Sea Fishing Industry, and reforms to the Fisheries Act that increase regulation and oversight of fishing vessels are positive steps.. However, the government only began making these regulatory changes toward the end of 2014, many of them weren’t operational until mid-2015, and we remain deeply concerned that failure to effectively enforce these laws and policies may render those changes ineffectual. The U.S. decision to leave Thailand on Tier 3 until it demonstrates greater political commitment to enforce these new laws and regulations reflects an accurate assessment of Thailand’s efforts to combat human trafficking and will serve as a powerful incentive for Thailand to take further steps.

The State Department’s decision will keep pressure for substantive changes by Bangkok. In particular, Thailand needs to demonstrate it is willing to enforce newly established mechanisms to increase transparency and regulatory accountability within its seafood industry, and apply those mechanisms to combating human trafficking by conducting more frequent inspections at sea, ensuring inspectors are trained to identify and respond to the needs of trafficking victims, and cracking down on the trade of fraudulent crew manifests and identification documents at ports.

Another issue that requires urgent US attention is Thailand’s use of criminal defamation and the Computer Crimes Act to prosecute journalists and human rights defenders. This month, Phuketwan journalists Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian, and migrant rights defender Andy Hall faced court proceedings. If they are found guilty, it will have a chilling impact on the ability of trafficking victims to speak out and seek justice. Thailand should not be prosecuting journalists and activists for doing their jobs, and these court trials belie Thailand’s claims that it is working with civil society to address human trafficking issues.

Finally, Thailand should ensure that migrant workers have the right to associate and organize to protect their rights, including the right to form unions.  The US should press Thailand to adopt key International Labor Organization conventions – including Conventions No. 87 on Freedom of Association and No. 98 on Collective Bargaining, as well as the new Protocol to Convention No. 29 Against Forced Labor (which Thailand has ratified) – and bring its laws into compliance.

We are committed to continue our efforts to press the government of Thailand toward making substantive changes to end human trafficking, and today’s decision will aid our efforts. We thank you for your work to combat human trafficking, and look forward to continuing our engagement with the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor; the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok to secure the outcome that we all want: the end of human trafficking in Thailand based on changed laws and policies, and effective enforcement on the ground. You can respond via Abby McGill, director of campaigns at the International Labor Rights Forum, by email at  abby@ilrf.org or phone at (202) 347-4100, ext. 113.

Sincerely,

1. American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations

2. Anti-Slavery International

3. The Child Labor Coalition

4. Environmental Justice Foundation

5. Green America

6. Greenpeace

7. Fairfood International

8. Fair World Project

9. Finnwatch

10. FishWise

11. Food Chain Workers Alliance

12. Fortify Rights

13. Free the Slaves

14. The Freedom Fund

15. Human Rights and Development Foundation

16. Human Rights at Sea

17. Human Rights Watch

18. International Labor Rights Forum

19. International Transport Workers’ Federation

20. International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF)

21. Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada

22. National Consumers League

23. National Guestworker Alliance

24. Slave Free Seas

25. Synod of Victoria and Tasmania, Uniting Church in Australia

Read the letter at Human Rights Watch

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