Fishing slavery claims net big charm offensive

Thailand went on a charm offensive in defence of its prawn industry this week, seeking to convince Europeans that it is responding to allegations of slavery and torture in its fisheries sector.

Fishing slavery claims net big charm offensive

Thailand went on a charm offensive in defence of its prawn industry this week, seeking to convince Europeans that it is responding to allegations of slavery and torture in its fisheries sector.

The fishing industry accounts for 40 per cent of Thai exports of food products and is a mainstay of the economy.

But its image has been badly damaged by accounts of abuse of illegal immigrants held captive and forced into unpaid ­labour, sometimes on boats at sea for years on end without receiving any payment for their work.

Thailand pulled out the stops for the SIAL international food fair outside Paris recently, sending a delegation with officials from the labour and fisheries ministries, plus police and anti-human trafficking experts as well as industry leaders.

They then travelled on to Brussels to lobby EU officials.

“We don’t deny there is a problem,” said Foreign Ministry official Sarun Charoensu­wan at a seminar.

“A lot of concrete measures are on their way.”

According to a June article by the British daily The Guardian, there is a lot to be done by Thailand’s prawn industry, the world’s largest, which sends about a quarter of its exports to the US where they are known as shrimp, and 15 per cent to Europe.

The newspaper found the sector relies heavily on fish meal, which was often supplied by ships using slave labour, to raise the prawns.

It interviewed numerous escapees from ships, fishermen and ship captains who told of the trafficking of unsuspecting workers on to boats where they could end up being ­exploited for years.

The workers had thought they were heading for factory or construction jobs in Thailand. They recounted 24-hour days and regular beatings for even those who worked hard, as well as torture and ­execution-style killings.

A 2011 report by the International Organisation for Migration found that labourers sold by traffickers to ship captains could end up spending years working on boats without pay or stepping on shore.

France’s Carrefour, the second-biggest retail group in the world, suspended its purchases of Thai prawns in June following the publication of the article in The Guardian.

Seeking to protect the key industry and its global reputation, Thailand intends to solve the problem by “bringing illegal migrants into the formal labour market”, according to Mr Charoensuwan.

A new law requires managers of fishing companies to provide labour contracts and to respect minimum levels of pay and time off.