Thailand: New report on forced labour in seafood industry tracks progress & pitfalls, highlighting unethical business practices
"NEW REPORT ON FORCED LABOUR IN THAILAND'S SEAFOOD INDUSTRY TRACKS PROGRESS, ILLUMINATES PITFALLS", 4 December 2019
...Humanity United and The Freedom Fund['s]... research... finds that the seafood industry has indeed made some progress... [but] is being undermined by a failure to fundamentally change the business model... [D]ecisions are still driven primarily by price, and do not include realistic considerations relating to human rights and environmental sustainability...
Encouragingly... [there are] a number of areas of emerging good practice and progress... [however] there are large gaps still remaining...
Brands and buyers need to acknowledge that their own business practices allow – and can actually encourage – forced labour to persist in supply chains...
The industry must shift away from endeavouring to meet buyer demand for cheap seafood by relying on unethical practices... Ending forced labour requires a marketplace where buyer demands don’t incentivize the very practices that they claim to abhor...
... [If implemented, the] recommendations... will help move the industry closer to the end of reliance on forced labour... and the exploitation of workers.