Monday, May 11, 2015

Seafood from slavery: Can Thailand tackle the crisis in its fishing industry?

The hours would be long and the work hard, but spending a year as a fisherman seemed like a good option to Samart Senasook.
Previous jobs as a security guard in Bangkok had been sporadic, so when a man known as Vee promised the 40-year old decent wages on a fishing boat he decided to take the chance.
Vee turned out to be a broker, a link in the chain of human trafficking that supplies the Thai fishing industry with thousands of migrant workers and turns many of them into virtual slaves.
The boat he was on was impounded by Indonesian authorities for suspected illegal fishing, with Senasook and his crewmates held in custody.

Six years a slave

Looking back on his ordeal, that he says lasted from January 2009 to March 2015, Senasook rarely saw land, as the boat he was on roamed further and further from Thai waters in search of increasingly scarce fish.
Its catch was part of Thailand's multi-billion dollar seafood industry that feeds tens of millions in Europe and the United States.
Senasook describes his life on board as one full of intimidation, sleep deprivation and regular beatings from the boat's captain.
The extent of the situation is hard to gauge. Thai government figures state that there are 145,000 working in its fishing industry, with 80% of those migrant workers, mainly from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. However, activist group Raks Thai Foundation suggests there are in excess of 200,000 trafficked, unregistered workers.





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