UN slams Thailand for 'government corruption' behind slavery in fisheries
Despite government promises to clean up the industry, the UN’s International Labour Office (ILO) – which deals with labour standards and social protection – has highlighted continued and endemic criminality throughout Thai fisheries in a damning report.
Among the most serious crimes highlighted in the report were “widespread corruption of government officials” connected to gangs accused of “routinely torturing and execute migrant workers who attempted to flee, in order to serve as a warning to others.”
The report adds momentum to a tide of investigations throughout the past years accusing Thailand’s fisheries of grosse human rights violations aboard its vessels.
The European Commission has already issued a ‘yellow card’ warning to the Thai government in 2016 that if substantial improvements are not made, all seafood imports could be banned from the EU27.
The steady stream of findings pointing to continued violations is also helping build consumer awareness; the Norwegian Seafood Research Fund (FHF) is currently investigating the growing market for a new ‘social sustainability’ label on seafood in the EU.
Allegations
Evidence was collected from ex labourers who gave information to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the International Transport Workers Federation (ITWF) - a global network of trade unions.
Gangs operating the vessels and committing crimes were reportedly “allowed to flourish because local officials provided protection and assistance […] the Government has done little to hold government officials who complicit in trafficking accountable for their crimes. Civil servants exposing corruption have had to flee the country as they might be charged with defamation. Criminal defamation has been used to silence others who speak about trafficking in persons. Witnesses in trafficking-in-persons prosecutions against government officials have also been harassed and threatened without the perpetrators facing serious consequences.”
Workers also confirmed brokers would routinely hire labourers for extortionate recruitment fees, often promising onshore work to lure unsuspecting foreigners in, and then confiscate their identity documents and force them to work up to twenty hours per day, often spending nine month periods at sea.
Other allegations of non-payment of wages, debt bondage and violence used to punish attempted escapes, all add to a detailed picture of modern day slavery – practices the report describes as standard.
A report in Guardian highlighted one labourer who claimed to have witnessed five murders aboard his ship, with crew being shot or thrown overboard by the captain.
Sailing away
Greenpeace investigations have also unveiled evidence that Thai fisheries have managed to circumvent all efforts made by Thai authorities to control the situation by moving into foreign waters where their actions cannot be policed.
Describing the industry as “As ruthless as ever” a Greenpeace spokesperson said the government’s efforts to tackle the situation in the wake of EU warnings has been wholly ineffective.
“Our investigation shows that rather than changing the way they fish to meet the regulations, they are just shifting to isolated and less regulated fishing grounds outside the region.”
The Greenpeace report ‘Turn the Tide’, said Thai vessels have simply standardised transhipment at sea to avoid coastal policing, and moved operations 7,000km further afield to environmentally fragile areas of the Indian Ocean.
Given the strength of the allegations released by the UN last week, giving the same findings used to give Thailand its ‘yellow card’, the European Commission could likely begin taking further action on the issue.
