Fishing vessels being inspected

INSPECTION and monitoring of fishing vessels are being implemented on mid-sized trawlers arriving and departing Thai ports in a bid to solve the problem of human trafficking in the fishery sector. 

Fisheries department director Joompol Sanguansin said yesterday that the first phase of the “port in, port out” checking of fishing vessels over 30 tonnes gross had begun in Chumphon, Ranong, Songkhla and Phuket provinces.

“The vessels have to report at the ‘port in, port out’ control centre before leaving or entering a seaport. The vessel licence and fishing permit will be inspected. The crews on board will be counted and checked if they have a work contract and are legal. The fishing equipment and the caught fish will also be inspected to make sure that they are using permitted equipment and catching the allowed kinds of fish,” Joompol explained.

“There will be 26 “port in, port out” control centres in 22 seaside provinces and this measure will be fully implemented by May,” he added.

According to the department’s information, 50,710 fishing vessels have registered under the Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing.

He revealed that the department is currently developing a vessel monitoring system (VMS) to monitor the trawlers by the global positioning system. The VMS will ready by May.

Currently, 20 Thai vessels have volunteered to install this system. 

He assured that by implementing these measures, the human-trafficking problem in the fishing industry would be eased.

Labour Protection and Welfare Department chief Peeraphat Pornsirilertkit said fishermen’s welfare is protected by the fishing industry labour protection ministerial regulation 2013, which has been in effect since last December. “The regulation bars fishing-vessel owners from recruiting underage workers, requires the owners to sign an official contract with their employees and allow the crew to have enough time for relaxation, besides good and safe living standards onboard,” Peeraphat clarified. “The workers also have to report to the department once a year.”

To regulate these rules, he said the department has joined forces with other agencies to randomly inspect fishing vessels. However, he admitted that the regulation was not an absolute solution. “This is not a task [to tackle 

 human trafficking] for the government alone. Every group in the fishing industry has to work together,” he added. 

Sompong Srakaew, head of the Labour Rights Promotion Network, said he was glad the government was taking the human-trafficking problem seriously, but he was still concerned that these measures wouldn’t really solve the problem. “In order to successfully tackle human trafficking, both the government and the fishing industry have to admit that the problem really exists,” Sompong said. 

Earlier last week, Prime Minister Geneeral Prayut Chan-o-cha announced that the issue of human trafficking would be on the national agenda.