Slavery in Thai fishing industry: The facts and what's at stake

A recent Opinion piece in The Nation, “The curious case of fish politics”, gave a bizarre and wholly inaccurate portrayal of the intense and growing international pressure that Thailand is facing as a result of its failure to address the interconnected problems of illegal fishing and modern slavery in the country’s globalised seafood industry. 

The Opinion piece characterised the work of the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) as an unwarranted attack on Thailand, singling out the country unfairly, without cause and without seeking dialogue. In fact, since the EJF first exposed the violent and entirely unacceptable human rights abuses occurring within the Thai fishing industry in 2013, my organisation has regularly reached out to the Thai government to offer our collaboration and it continues to make concise and constructive recommendations to all stakeholders – from consumers to producers of seafood. 

The EJF’s current focus on Thailand results directly from the extent and severity of abuse occurring within the Thai fishing industry. Nowhere else in the world have we been able to identify anything remotely like the extent to which forced, bonded and slave labour is used as in the Thai industry, and nowhere else have we witnessed the common-place use of such extreme violence. Our findings are repeatedly corroborated by numerous others, from the United Nations to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to multiple other NGOs.

So, for example, a United Nations inter-agency survey found an astonishing 59 per cent of those it surveyed had witnessed an execution at sea while an ILO survey noted 94 per cent had no contract; 17 per cent worked against their will; 17 per cent were threatened with violence; and 10 per cent were severely beaten. These are not ad-hoc, one-off cases of abuse by rogue operators, they are present across the Thai fleet that has used slave, forced and bonded labour as a means to keep costs low as their chronic mismanagement of the fisheries in the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Sea have reduced stocks and productivity to such a level that they simply could not fish there profitably without this “free” or brutalised cheap labour. 

Contrary to the claims made in the recent Opinion piece, that the EJF has arbitrarily singled out Thailand, the EJF’s latest report and its film “Pirates and Slaves: How overfishing in Thailand fuels human trafficking and the plundering of our oceans” clearly acknowledge that not only is modern slavery a serious issue in fishing industries from Chile to New Zealand but also comments in detail on the ambitious Thai government plans to combat both human trafficking and illegal fishing in the sector.

Rather than call for “retributive measures”, the EJF offers robust recommendations on how the Thai government might improve efforts to enable and facilitate the eradication of environmental destruction, illegal fishing and modern slavery from seafood supply chains. Part of this approach involves leveraging international pressure to highlight to the Thai authorities the severity of the problem and further encourage constructive and collaborative approaches. 

 

The role of watchdogs

Consequently, the EJF regularly reports information to governments and agencies internationally, including authorities within the European Union and United States. We do this with the quite clear and open ambition of informing consuming markets about the terrible human rights and conservation abuses associated with some Thai seafood exports and also to try and persuade government-to-government dialogue aimed at encouraging and working with the Thai government to resolve these problems. Only a fool would seek an approach of crude and simple punishment and this is not our aim. What we want is action to solve these problems. 

Similarly, in our view the suggestion that the EU’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries has suddenly started to operate “beyond its own official mandate” with regards to Thailand ignores the years of dialogue between European Commission and Thai government officials, in which the EU has regularly highlighted its serious concerns at the lack of traceability of seafood products entering European markets, the poor control that Thailand has over its fishing fleets and the dire state of Thailand’s legal and regulatory framework concerning fisheries management.

Further, the recent Opinion piece’s implication that European expressions of concern regarding the severity of modern slavery and illegal fishing in Thailand are linked to protectionist trade interests is absurd and, with regards to my organisation, borders on the libellous. International organisations, the media, NGOs and private sector actors from around the world have worked for years to highlight these very same problems in Thailand. The EJF has no commercial or other beneficial interest in any national fishing sector, but we do applaud positive responsible actions – like those taken in recently by South Korea and Spain to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing – and we always, consistently, condemn the illegal or irresponsible actors in this vital sector. 

The recent Opinion piece demonstrates poor research and poor journalism in the transparent ignorance of the work of the EJF in West Africa since 2010. Working in partnership with coastal and artisanal fishing communities in West Africa, the EJF uses cost-effective, technological solutions to combat the illegal fishing of industrial trawlers which directly threatens the livelihoods and food security of extremely vulnerable West African communities. EJF evidence has been used to sanction over 30 illegal “pirate” fishing vessels and has helped governments around the world collect over $1.5 million (Bt49 million) in fines and has led to fish being stopped at Europe’s borders, prohibited entry so as to stop IUU fish from the region entering the EU marketplace. 

The EU is one of the most valuable markets for fish in the world. The EJF works in accordance with Article 49(2) of the EU IUU Regulation – which authorises environmental organisations to share information with the European Commission. Since 2012, EJF has collaborated with multiple member states to support verifications of catches from West African waters and stop illegally caught fish from entering the EU – including tuna caught by “pirate” fishing vessels operated by companies based in European countries such as France and Spain.

 

A lesson from South Korea

As the recent Opinion piece correctly pointed out, modern slavery destroys human dignity, while both overfishing and illegal fishing decimate our shared oceans. But, where governments act with resolve and determination, these issues do not necessarily jeopardise global trade – as the South Korean government, with whom the EJF works closely, has demonstrated through the wholesale transformation of its fishing industry following an EU decision to issue it with a yellow card in November 2013. 

Overfishing, modern slavery and illegal fishing in Thailand threaten the Thai seafood sector; they threaten the security of marine ecosystems and they threaten Thailand’s international trade in seafood products – people across the world do not want to eat seafood produced by slaves. Rather than suggesting that Thailand is being unfairly targeted and that ongoing Thai government efforts are being ignored, Thailand must recognise that the widespread international condemnation from public, private and third sector actors is rooted in its failure thus far to demonstrate sufficient improvements in ensuring that Thai seafood is both ethically and sustainably produced.

 

Steve Trent is executive director of the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF; www.ejfoundation.org).