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Article

30 Mar 2017

Author:
Felicity Lawrence & Kate Hodal, Guardian (UK)

Thailand accused of failing to stamp out murder and slavery in fishing industry

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Thailand is failing to protect migrant workers on fishing trawlers from murder and starvation, with trafficking and forced labour still rampant despite new government legislation, according to a new report.

In an unusually critical ruling by the UN’s labour agency, the International Labour Organisation has urged the Thai government to remedy continued abuses on fishing vessels operating in Thai waters. It follows a formal complaint to the ILO by international trade unions last year, which highlighted evidence of migrant workers enduring 20-hour working days, physical abuse and non-payment of wages…

The evidence submitted to the ILO by the International Transport Federation (ITF) and the International Trade Union Conference (ITUC) catalogued various instances of forced labour and abuse on Thai fishing vessels, following a series of interviews with Thai and migrant workers conducted by the ITF in 2015…

Thailand’s $6.5bn (£5.2bn) seafood export industry…has suffered significantly following allegations of human rights and labour abuses, and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. In 2014, Thailand was downgraded in the US state department’s Trafficking in Persons report, which marks countries for their stance on slavery. In 2015, Thailand was given a “yellow card” warning by the EU to clean up or face a ban on EU imports.

The Thai government has introduced some reforms and new laws to address trafficking and forced labour, but the ILO report emphasises that not enough has been done. It points to gaps in the country’s legal framework and enforcement, in particular in the regulation of brokers who recruit workers, the prosecution of corrupt officials, and the effective inspection of vessels…