Migrants tell of slavery at sea on Thai fishing boats

The day Hla Myint saw the sea for the first time was when traffickers delivered him, after a week's trek through the jungle from Burma, to a ship on Thailand's coast. He said it was the beginning of seven months of "hell", during which there were beatings "every day, every hour".

His is one of a multitude of stories of slavery in Thailand's multi-million-dollar fishing industry, which campaigners say relies on forced labour to provide seafood for restaurants and supermarkets across the world.

Hla Myint decided to escape - throwing himself into choppy waters and clinging to a life buoy for five hours before reaching land - after seeing his captain kill a crewmate.

"My heart pounded so hard when I saw that," said Hla Myint, whose name has been changed to protect his identity. Now he works with a local aid group helping others to flee.

The UN recently acknowledged Thailand's "significant progress" in efforts to tackle trafficking, but said it needed to go further.

Sirirat Ayuwathana of the Social Development and Human Security Ministry, said authorities were aware of the problem and planned to set up a commission to work on registering all fishing boats and crew members.

"We cannot know what happens when the boats leave the shore. The workers could be tortured or detained. The captains have total control of the boat, and they may mistreat these people," she said.

Life on the boats is hard. Men toil for up to 20 hours a day, seven days a week, only snatching a few moments for food and rest between hauling nets, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch, who wrote the report, said marine police in one Thai coastal area told him they found up to 10 bodies a month washed up on the shore.

In a 2009 study, more than half of the Cambodian migrants trafficked onto Thai boats surveyed by the UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP) said they had seen their captains killing one of their colleagues.

But Mana Sripitak, of the National Fisheries Association of Thailand, said it was "impossible" that forced labour was used, saying migrants were willing workers. The US State Department has placed Thailand on a trafficking in persons "watchlist" for two years running.

On a recent visit to Thailand, UN special rapporteur on people trafficking, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, said the country was not doing enough to curb the trade. "The immunity of traffickers, especially the collusion with the official law-enforcement agencies, is really diluting the government's effort and efficacy of its policies and programmes to combat human trafficking," she said.