Forced labour and human trafficking have not disappeared in the fishing industry. (Photo: Asean Parlamentarians of Human Rights)

EJF questions Thailand’s progress on human trafficking in fisheries

THAILAND
Tuesday, June 21, 2016, 22:30 (GMT + 9)

Non-government organisation EJF considers that the Royal Thai Government (RTG) has not achieved substantial progress in eliminating severe forms of trafficking compared to the previous year. For this reason, it argues that the country needs to remain on Tier 3 of the report that the Government of the United States publishes every year.

The NGO expressed this view just before the US Department of State is about to publish its 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report (TRP), which is the principal diplomatic tool used to engage foreign Governments on human trafficking.

This environmentalist group recognized that the RTG has introduced in 2015 important legislative frameworks to strengthen its fisheries management regime and has acted on intelligence provided by Civil Society Organisations to combat trafficking and identify victims of human trafficking but it has not been enough.

EJF points out that the RTG has in particular failed to:

• Pro-actively implement forensic investigations and enforcement action to gather evidence over time with the specific aim of initiating prosecutions and convictions against those engaged in trafficking, forced, bonded and slave labour;
• Successfully prosecute and convict Thai nationals involved in human trafficking on the scale and to the extent required to reflect the magnitude of the problem in Thailand;
• Develop and implement reforms of its labour regulations to improve the recruitment of migrant workers and enhance worker protection mechanisms;
• Establish effective working mechanisms to identify and screen victims of exploitation and abuse in port or on-board of fishing vessels;
• Adopt a victim-centred approach towards those who have escaped or who have been rescued from trafficking, forced and bonded labour.

The entity stresses that as a result of these failings, EJF calls for Thailand to remain on Tier 3 for a third year. EJF’s Executive Director, Steve Trent, says: “The US State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons has played a vital leadership role in the global fight against human trafficking.”

“By maintaining the ranking of Thailand on Tier 3 in 2015 for its failure to adequately address human trafficking, the US have demonstrated their clear determination and commitment to help combat this appalling crime. Our recommendation to leave Thailand on Tier 3 is based on the outcomes of our field investigations, which routinely demonstrate that slavery remains an integral part of the Thai seafood industry’s business model and of their international supply chains,” Trent stresses.

Thailand was downgraded from Tier 2 to Tier 3 –its lowest rank- for the first time in the 2014 Trafficking in Persons Report, following a series of reports and exposés by EJF, other civil society groups and the media documenting the systemic use of modern-day slavery in Thailand’s seafood industry, including child and forced labour, forced detention, extreme violence and murder.

Related articles:

- New report proves abuses persist in Thai seafood industry
- Thai fishing sector deems US’s TIP report as ‘disappointing’
- Thai Govt accuses EU of disregarding its struggle against IUU fishing

editorial@seafood.media
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