However, it is not just the constant threat of being whipped or murdered that weighs heavily on those who are tricked or forced into joining Thai fishing vessels. So does the endless routine of backbreaking labor.
“Working conditions on Thai fishing vessels are notoriously challenging. In multiple reports, workers discuss working 18-20-hour days with inadequate food, water and medical supplies. Between 14 percent and 18 percent of migrants report being victims of forced labor,” explains the Borgen Project, a US-based group that documents labor rights abuses worldwide.
“Threats from employers and beatings are common, along with working at sea for years at a time without being allowed to leave the vessel. These conditions affect all nationalities in the Thai fishing industry, but undocumented immigrants are the most vulnerable to mistreatment.”
The EU said it would impose a trade ban on marine fisheries products from the Southeast Asian nation unless its fishing industry stopped serious human rights abuses
Many impoverished migrant workers are lured into working on fishing vessels under false pretenses. Others wind up in so-called debt bondage, which affects hundreds of thousands of low-income workers in Thailand alone, according to Walk Free, an Australian organization that seeks to end modern slavery worldwide.
A modern-day form of indentured servitude, debt bondage is a scheme whereby laborers are duped into paying as much as $330 (a fortune to most low-income earners) to get a job on borrowed money, only to wind up being indebted to brokers or employers. They are then forced to work for free for prolonged periods as they continue repaying their “debts.”
Faced by international outrage about severe labor rights abuses and environmentally exploitative practices, the Thai fishing industry has made some efforts to clean up its act.
In 2015, the European Union gave Thailand a “yellow card” by way of a warning. The EU said it would impose a trade ban on marine fisheries products from the Southeast Asian nation unless its fishing industry stopped serious human rights abuses such as forced labor and desisted from illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing practices.
In 2019, the EU lifted its yellow card on Thailand in recognition of the progress the country had made in these respects.
However, that does not mean all is well with the Thai fishing industry. Despite there being more stringent regulations in place, enforcement remains lax and corruption rampant.
A fisherman takes a small, newly caught fish out of a net. (Photo: UCA News)
Migrant ghost workers
Unscrupulous operators, say labor rights advocates, can continue to exploit their workers with impunity. This applies particularly to migrant workers from countries such as Myanmar and Cambodia, especially since many of them work in Thailand illegally, which means that they are less likely to seek, and receive, help from local law enforcement authorities.
“Many of these undocumented migrant workers are like ghosts in Thailand,” says a Thai rights activist who asked not to be named. “They came into the country illegally, so they might be treated like criminals if they spoke out” about labor rights abuses.
In its recent 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report, in which Thailand was downgraded from a Tier 2 country to a Tier 2 Watchlist nation, the US Department of State notes that despite having made some progress in eliminating human trafficking, Thai authorities last year “initiated significantly fewer trafficking investigations, prosecuted fewer suspects and convicted fewer traffickers than in 2019.”
The report’s authors highlight persistent allegations that migrant workers have been tricked or coerced into forced labor in many industries in Thailand, yet the country’s military-allied government continues to downplay the extent of the problem.
It is not hard to witness migrant workers toiling away in grueling conditions. On a recent afternoon under a cloudless sky with a scorching sun overhead, several Cambodian workers were cleaning nets at a small fishing port in Hua Hin, a resort town south of Bangkok.
As Thai tourists piled into open-air seafood restaurants to dine on fish, shrimp and mussels a few meters away, the Cambodians kept on working. When an inquisitive journalist decided to take a few pictures, they lowered their heads and did their best to avoid being photographed.
Later on in the afternoon, as the sun began its descent beyond the horizon, the Cambodians were still cleaning nets and hanging them out to dry, their calloused hands performing the monotonous tasks with skill.
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