Activists Critical of Latest Human Trafficking Report

Activists Critical of Latest Human Trafficking Report:

Thailand's improved status in US human trafficking report sparks fury | Global development | The Guardian

Thailand's improved status in US human trafficking report sparks fury | Global development | The Guardian:criticised upgrade, Sl



'

Ending slave labour at sea

Ending slave labour at sea:

Public opinion sinks 'fishing-boat prison idea', AsiaOne Asia News

ASEAN's second-largest economy, and the third-largest exporter of seafood in the world, faces a labour shortage on its fishing boats.

The work is so dangerous and back-breaking, and its pay so low, that it is done mostly by migrant workers from Myanmar and Cambodia. Human trafficking is a problem in this industry.

The Ministry of Labour, under General Surasak Karnjanarat, hit upon a self-declared "creative" idea: Let prisoners work on fishing boats. Only those with less than one year of their sentences left were eligible, and they would have to give their consent to join the scheme.

Lean more here:

Public opinion sinks 'fishing-boat prison idea', AsiaOne Asia News:

2014 In Human Trafficking | International Political Forum

The pressure of unprecedented globalisation has meant that human trafficking and modern day slavery are inescapable realities of our political system. From Pope Francis declaring human trafficking as a “crime against humanity” to forced labourin Thailand’s seafood industry, the issue of human trafficking has been contemplated in 2014 in a way that it has not been before. Contemplation, however, does not effectively tackle the unfavourable issue of human trafficking; neither does it halt thegrowing vulnerability of migrants in a period of brisk economic change. A new year entails a new direction, and a contemporary approach to a perennial issue.

Continue here:

2014 In Human Trafficking | International Political Forum:

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Slaves in the supply chain: 12 ways to clean up business | Global Development Professionals Network | Guardian Professional

Slaves in the supply chain: 12 ways to clean up business | Global Development Professionals Network | Guardian Professional:

Are ethical audits actually useful? How do you incentivise due diligence? Our panel unpicks the politics and practicalities of supply chain transparency

Please check out this article.

The faces of modern-day slavery – in pictures | Global development | The Guardian

The faces of modern-day slavery – in pictures | Global development | The Guardian:

According to official estimates there are 21 million people trapped in some form of slavery. From people enslaved by debt to migrants trapped by labour and child brides, we explore the reality of slavery for many people in the modern world

Supported by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation


http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2013/apr/03/faces-modern-day-slavery-in-pictures#/?picture=406090996&index=3

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Modern slavery - ABC Queensland - Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

Modern slavery - ABC Queensland - Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC):


Modern slavery

21 July 2014 , 3:10 PM by Amanda Dell

Slavery seems like it should be a relic of the past, but our clothes, our food and our service industry could all be tainted by the forced labour of people who are kept captive by others.

Hear about the slaves who may be working near you, and why the fishing industry is tainted by the enslavement of workers. 

Listen here:

http://blogs.abc.net.au/queensland/2014/07/modern-slavery.html

'Thailand 'on trial' over food industry exposé victimisation' - Andrew Drummond

'Thailand 'on trial' over food industry exposé victimisation' - Andrew Drummond:

The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has described Thailand as being ‘on trial’ for allowing a company to prosecute a human rights defender who exposed modern day slavery in its canned fruit and fishing industry. 

Read Andrew Drummond's article: 

http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2014/07/thailand-on-trial-over-food-industry.html

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EJF investigation reveals human rights abuses in Thailand's fishing industry

http://ejfoundation.org/soldtotheseanews

Source: EJF

29 May, 2013

In Sold to the Sea, a new report published today, EJF exposes severe human rights abuses associated with human trafficking in Thailand's fishing industry and documents the testimonies of Burmese workers, as young as 16, who were forced onto fishing vessels for many months and subjected to arduous, often violent, working conditions without pay.

The report details testimonies of crew murdered at sea, and on shore, and the shocking figure from a 2009 survey by the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP) that found 59% of interviewed migrants trafficked about Thai fishing boats reported witnessing the murder of a fellow worker.
Testimonies from the victims EJF interviewed:
“They said I could not do my job very well and I was beaten. We dare not talk back or make any complaints. When our boat went back to shore, I was sold to another boat and I was beaten on that next boat as well.”
“After 3 nights we were told that one of us would be executed. We had to draw straws to decide who would be killed. If the police had come one hour later we would have been killed already.”
Sold to the Sea reports that authorities tasked with ensuring that workers are employed legally, and are not mistreated, have proved unable or unwilling to do so. EJF has documented that human trafficking onto fishing vessels has, on occasion, been facilitated by corruption and there is an unwillingness to prosecute the individuals and companies that procure trafficked persons.
EJF evidence shows a close relationship between human trafficking and IUU fishing, with migrants reporting their boats regularly operating illegally and fleeing patrol boats in foreign waters. This is a symptom of a wider lack of regulation and transparency in the Thai fishing industry, with ineffective enforcement by Navy patrols and little information on the activities and locations of fishing vessels.
EJF found that monitoring of the activities of the Thai fishing fleet is negligible and consequently new management and enforcement mechanisms must be employed.
In Sold to the Sea: Human Trafficking in Thailand’s Fishing Industry, EJF reveals evidence that raises serious questions about Thailand’s progress in combating and preventing human trafficking. EJF calls on all stakeholders to work together to prevent human trafficking in Thai seafood production and bring an end to this devastating practice. The report offers specific recommendations for action.
Steve Trent, Executive Director of EJF, said:
“EJF has uncovered a huge number of pirate fishing operators and criminal businesses actively using forced and trafficked workers on their boats as a way to maximise their profits. The victims of this, often among the most vulnerable and desperate, are subject to horrific abuse, denied basic freedoms, forced to work punishing hours, savagely beaten and even murdered. There are no excuses for this modern day slavery and governments and business must come together to stamp it out.
All too often the fish that is caught by these vessels, crewed by trafficked workers, is used to supply fish to the shrimp industry and provide for fish markets in Europe. We are eating product produced by slaves and this must be stopped.  
It is absolutely clear that the Thai authorities have long known about the trafficking on to fishing vessels (and into shrimp factories) and that the enforcement agencies supposed to prevent this and protect victims either turn a blind eye, or have even colluded with the traffickers and businesses that benefit.”
Read the report here.

====
TRAFFICKING MONITOR: Video: http://ejfoundation.org/soldtotheseafilm

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• ILO Global Forum Discusses Decent Work in the Fishing Industry - The Fish Site

ILO Global Forum Discusses Decent Work in the Fishing Industry - The Fish Site

ILO Global Forum Discusses Decent Work in the Fishing Industry - The Fish Site:

Source: The Fish Site

May 17, 2013

GLOBAL - Government, employer and worker delegates meeting at ILO headquarters will consider ways to promote decent work in the fishing industry through the implementation and ratification of the ILO’s Work in Fishing Convention, 2007 (No. 188).

From 15 to 17 May, delegates will discuss how this Convention can be used as a tool to improve working conditions and to help address major challenges in the industry.

These challenges include the image of the fishing industry; occupational safety and health; conditions of work on small fishing vessels; forced labour and human trafficking; child labour; conditions of work of migrant fishers; illegal fishing and food security.

Delegates will also address the need to strengthen social dialogue between representatives of fishing vessel owners and fishers. They will also exchange experiences on their efforts to implement this instrument in their home countries and on their own fishing vessels.

“The Forum should agree on the way forward for the formulation of national legislation that will allow for the ratification and implementation of the Convention. There will be different challenges in many countries. These can be identified and the ILO can consider assistance in addressing them,” says Captain Nigel Campbell, the chair of the Forum.

ILO Convention No. 188 was adopted to ensure that fishers have decent working conditions on board fishing vessels with regard to minimum requirements for work on board; conditions of service; accommodation and food; occupational safety and health protection; medical care and social security. These include such matters as ensuring fishers are at least of a minimum working age, have provided sufficient rest at sea, and have clear written agreements with vessel owners covering their work on board.

The Convention puts in place a mechanism to ensure compliance with, and enforcement of, its provisions by States and provides that large fishing vessels and fishing vessels on extended international voyages may be subject to labour inspections in foreign ports.

There are benefits for fishing vessel owners as well, as the Convention will help to attract and retain fishers, to reduce accidents at sea and to address how fishers are engaged by vessel owners and employers in an increasingly globalised sector.

“The Work in Fishing Convention is one of the three pillars for safety at sea in fishing, and the working and living conditions of fishermen. The other two are the Torremolinos Convention of 1977 and the STCW-F Convention of 1995. The ratification rate of all three Conventions is way too low. Policy makers should make these essential Conventions an integral part of fisheries policies,” says Ment van der Zwan (IOE), who represents the fishing vessel owners at the meeting.

“We look forward to adopting concrete action points which will facilitate the entry into force of ILO Convention 188, and to agreeing on how we can address some of the social and labour problem areas within the sector,” a representative of the fishers says.

According to an ILO report for the meeting, challenging and often difficult working conditions are common in fishing, regardless of the type and size of the fishing operation. There is a huge diversity in the fishing industry’s various sectors, with vessels ranging from small wooden fishing vessels to huge deep-sea trawlers.

“This introduces very different employment practices, from the family-owned boat to vessels owned by large conglomerates and fishing operations, and the day at sea as opposed to voyages of many months,” explains Campbell.

“This diversity often makes it difficult for employees and employers to organize themselves into bodies that can interact as social partners.”.

The number and difference in regulatory regimes is another major challenge: in some countries the maritime safety authority monitors employment conditions, while in others it’s the labour ministry or the fisheries ministry or agency. In many countries, safety regulations are only applied to larger vessels and smaller crafts are rarely if ever inspected.

For the ILO, all people should have legal protection with respect to their conditions of work. For fishers, who provide the food that every day sustains the health of a great part of the world’s population, such legal protection should take the form of national laws, regulations or other measures which, at a minimum, implement the provisions of the Work in Fishing Convention, 2007.

Cambodian court charges woman from China's Taiwan with trafficking fishermen - Xinhua | English.news.cn

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-05/12/c_132376896.htm

Source: Xinhua | English.news.cn

PHNOM PENH, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Sunday charged a woman from China's Taiwan region with trafficking Cambodians to work in slave-like conditions on fishing boats off the coast of Africa, police said.

Instigating Judge Leang Samnak accused Lin Yu Hshin, 53, owner of Giant Ocean International Fishery Co. Ltd., of "illegally exporting Cambodian people with a purpose" and ordered the pre- trial detention of the woman, Lt. Gen. Chhiv Phally, deputy chief of the Ministry of Interior's anti-human trafficking and juvenile protection department, told reporters after the court questioned the lady on Sunday.

Lin Yu Hshin was arrested Friday in Siem Reap City after an investigation since late 2011, he said. "Our investigation was made after 169 victims have filed complaints against her," he said."According the complaints, she has been accused of trafficking Cambodian people to work on fishing boats in slave-like conditions -- working 18 hours a day with physical torture and without wages."

He said some victims are still on fishing boats off the coast of Africa.

Ghanaian Child Advocate Wins U.S. Award | IIP Digital

http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2013/03/20130301143551.html#ixzz2MaiOkEGk

Source:  IIP Digital

01 March 2013

Young fishermen work together to haul in a net in a Ghanaian fishing community in 2008.

Washington — A Ghanaian advocate for vulnerable children has been recognized by the U.S. government for his work.

George Achibra has won the U.S. Department of Labor’s 2012 Iqbal Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labor, Acting Deputy Under Secretary of Labor for International Affairs Carol Pier announced in a February 28 Labor Department press release.

Achibra received the award from U.S. Ambassador to Ghana Gene A. Cretz at a ceremony in Accra.

Achibra was selected for his work in rescuing hundreds of children from child labor and child trafficking in impoverished fishing communities in Ghana. A former schoolteacher, Achibra founded the Partnership for Community Development to provide services to trafficked children and raise awareness about child labor and human trafficking laws.

In announcing the award, Pier said: “Children exploited in Ghana’s fishing industry face unacceptable perils — such as drowning because they cannot swim and must dive into deep water to untangle fishing nets. Children trafficked into this industry are especially vulnerable to injury or death.

“This award honors George Achibra’s selfless dedication in helping such children escape from harm and find new hope for their future.”

The U.S. Congress established the Iqbal Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labor in 2009 to recognize exceptional efforts by an individual, company, organization or national government to end the worst forms of child labor. It also seeks to raise international awareness about the worst forms of child labor.

The nonmonetary award honors the spirit of Iqbal Masih, a Pakistani child sold into bonded labor as a carpet weaver at age 4. He escaped his servitude and became an outspoken advocate of children’s rights, drawing international attention in his fight against child labor. Masih was killed in Pakistan at age 13 in 1995.

The 2010 Iqbal Masih Award also went to an African recipient, the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia (FAWUL). FAWUL persevered in the face of adversity, organized workers on the Firestone Rubber Plantation and gained international support for their mission to protect workers and their children on the rubber plantation. The organization succeeded in negotiating two collective bargaining agreements that banned child labor and improved conditions for adult workers on the plantation.

Since 1995, the Labor Department has supported global efforts to combat exploitative child labor internationally. The department solicits nominations for the Iqbal Masih Award from those who know “someone who has made a difference in the lives of children laboring in exploitative work” or those who have “worked with an organization or government which has gone above and beyond to assist child laborers,” according to its website.

For more information about the Labor Department’s work and the Iqbal Masih Award, visit the Bureau of International Labor Affairs’ website.

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Seven Asian Nations Unite to Tackle Human Trafficking | Pattaya Daily News - Pattaya Newspaper, Powerful news at your fingertips

http://www.pattayadailynews.com/en/2012/09/22/seven-asian-nations-unite-to-tackle-human-trafficking/

Source; Pattaya Newspaper

:blished : September 22, 2012

The DSI held a meeting to address human trafficking by creating a network
 to work together with Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia and China.
 Thailand’s human trafficking encompasses the fishing, service and sex
 industries, as well as illegal beggars on the street.

SATTAHIP – September 20, 2012 [PDN]; the Department of Special Investigations
 (DSI) set up a meeting with six neighboring countries to address the problem
of human trafficking. The meeting focused primarily on the fishing industry, but
 also other types of exploitation, such as prostitutes and beggars from foreign
countries.

Chairing the meeting was Pol. Lt. Col. Paisit Sangkhaphong, representing the
DSI. The meeting’s moderator was TV news journalist Ms. Thapanee Eadsricha
i from channel 3.

Other meeting participants included the director of the fishing association, NGO,
the sea police, the Navy, the command unit of subduing for human trade, and
 related organizations.

Also at the meeting were representatives of the Samaesarn fishing group, in
area of Tambon Samaesarn, Amphur Sattahip, Chonburi province.

Mr. Pramote Thowsakul, ex-kamnan of Tambon Samaesarn and the
entrepreneur of fishing in area of Tambon Samaesarn, (Sattahip), welcomed
 the opportunity provided by the DSI to address the problem.

Mr. Pramote said his feeling is that Tambon Samaesarn is an area where
many foreign crewmembers on fishing boats are being deceived, beaten,
 detained, and are often not paid for their work. As a result, Tambon Samaesarn
has acquired a bad reputation for human trafficking.

But Mr. Pramote also revealed that the entrepreneurs of fishing boats are not as
cruel as how the news reports describe them. The real culprits behind the cruel
 treatment of foreign workers are the unscrupulous recruiting agents, he said.

When the exploited workers refuse to consent to the illegal working conditions,
 or do not repay the agents after getting their first wages, often the agents get
angry and beat the victims, and also detain them to prevent them from escaping.

When enforcement officers come to make arrests, usually they do not fault the
entrepreneur for smuggling the workers, but instead accuse the entrepreneur
with illegally employing the foreign workers and giving them a place to live. But
then the enforcement officers often accept bribes to overlook the illegal activity,
which then continues.

 

Mr. Pramote said he was ready to cooperate with the government officers in every
 organization to build a new “Samaesarn Model” to stop the illegal trafficking.

The DSI had set up the meeting to organize and network to protect and to solve
 the problem of human trade, and ask for cooperation in detection and
investigation to subdue human trafficking among the seven countries of
 Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, China, and Malaysia.

The Ministry of Justice, which has assigned the DSI as the entity responsible
 for subduing human trafficking, has found in its investigation that attempting
 to arrest the suspects is problematic. Since most of the recruiting agents live
in another country or a third-party country, local enforcement officers cannot
prosecute the agents at the origin of their crimes.

The meeting between seven countries will serve as an exchange of information
of human trafficking, and help set up a network of detection and investigation
to work together to arrest suspects in the international human trafficking circuit.

Among the seven countries, Thailand is regarded as the “central market” of
exchange for human trafficking, as well as a meeting place and transit corridor
 for traffickers to send their victims to neighbor countries.

The type of human trafficking most prevalent in Thailand is among fishing
 boat workers, according to meeting participants. However, sex trafficking
 is the most severe problem because it also involves the sexual violation of
 minors. The DSI has sent undercover officers to infiltrate the human trade
 procession in high-risk areas.

The representatives from the Khong river country that extends through Laos
and Cambodia accepted that most of the problem of human trade occurs in
Thailand, where group of recruiting agents have deceived victims by offering
 them work in Thailand restaurants and factories.

But when they arrive in Thailand, many underage Laotian women between
 ages 15 to 18 were forced to be prostitutes, and many Cambodian children
and adults were forced to be beggars. Meeting participants will work
together for solutions to protect victims, especially in inspecting the
moving of workers between borders.

However, in the year 2015, the ASEAN association agreement will allow
more freedom and easing of trade barriers among the Khong River
countries of Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand.

It is expected that this greater freedom will also make it easier for human
 traffickers, and result in even more victims being exploited. So it is
 necessary to find a way of cooperation between countries along
the Khong river to set up measures to handle the problem of human
trade that occurs continuously.

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US State Department: forced labor on Thai fishing vessels still ignored

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/southeast-asia/us-state-department-forced-labor-thai-fishing-vessels-sti

But the State Department declines to sanction Thailand for slavery in US-linked fishing industry.

Patrick WinnJune 28, 2012 02:11

For migrant workers trapped in slavery-like conditions on Thai fishing trawlers, the odds of being 
rescued by authorities remain slim.

But they're apparently not slim enough to merit the U.S. State Department knocking Thailand down to its lowest human-trafficking ranking. That very real threat, which carries the penalty of aid sanctions, was not meted out on Thailand in America's recently released Trafficking in Persons report. Each year, the State Department analyzes countries' efforts at halting trafficking and forced labor.

Global Post's recent investigation into the plight of seafaring migrants duped into slavery, "Seafood Slavery," suggested a shockingly frequency of murder on Thai boats. Equally discomforting is the link between the fish they snare and the American supermarket, which is partially supplied by an invisible deep-sea supply chain.

Thailand has dodged a bullet by holding on to its "watch list" status and hovering just above the worst ranking.

But is the government's enforcement improving?

Not really, according to the new report.

Last year's report determined that inspections of potentially abusive vessels were "practically nonexistent."

This year, the State Department contends that the government upped its investigations into this crime to three. Thailand's navy, according to the report, conducted "more than 1,000" inspections of long-haul boats and intercepted "thousands of undocumented migrant workers ... a population likely to contain trafficking victims." But it didn't identify a single one.

Without a special waiver, countries hit twice in a row with the second-to-last ranking, "Tier Two Watchlist," are meant to be bumped down to the worst ranking. It appears that Thailand got its waiver. It has now wallowed in this category for three years.

As one deputy boat captain told me two months ago: "Once a captain is tired of a guy, he’s sold to another captain for profit ... a guy can be out there for 10 years just getting sold over and over.”

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• Motherships in the abyss, Thailand and forced labor | Alaska Dispatch (trafficking-monitor.blogspot.com)

NZ slammed in US 'slavery' report | Stuff.co.nz

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/7136340/NZ-slammed-in-US-slavery-report



MICHAEL FIELD  


Last updated 12:15 20/06/2012

MISSING: The US State Department report on trafficking featured a comparison - click here - between 19th Century US slavery and a 2007 ad for a sailor who quit a fishing boat in NZ.

Related Links

Missing person advert compared

       

New  Zealand's use of cheap labour on fishing boats and sex trafficking has been labelled 21st century slavery in a US State Department report released this morning.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released the department's annual Trafficking in Persons report in Washington DC this morning.

The annual report examines the trafficking of 25 million people around the world, with Clinton calling for it "to be labelled for what it is; slavery."

The report's section on New Zealand is one of the longest produced on this country.

However Prime Minister John Key says the Government is already addressing the fishing crew issue and under-age prostitution is already illegal.

Speaking to NewstalkZB he said New Zealand was going to require the end of foreign charter fishing vessels.

"We are moving to completely change that and get rid of those foreign crews and that will fix that issue," he said.

Key said it was not impossible that there were women being trafficked for sex work but he had not seen a case of it.

"I would have thought New Zealand borders are pretty tough in that regard and that is also against the law," he said, saying a prosecution would occur if a case was found.

FISHING CREW, SEX WORKER CONCERNS

The report said fishermen on Korean-flagged boats in New Zealand suffered "imposition of significant debts, physical violence, mental abuse, and excessive hours of work".

The report says women from China and South East Asia "may be recruited from their home countries by labour agents for the purpose of prostitution and may be at risk of coercive practices."

"A small number of girls and boys, often of Maori or Pacific Islander descent, are trafficked domestically to engage in street prostitution while some are victims of gang-controlled trafficking rings."

"The Government of New Zealand made efforts to investigate suspected trafficking offences but failed to convict and punish any trafficking offenders during the reporting period," the US State Department says.

The report says foreign men, largely from Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand, are subjected to conditions of forced labour, including debt bondage, aboard foreign-flagged fishing vessels in New Zealand waters.

"Alleged conditions experienced by workers on these boats - most of which are Republic of Korea (South Korea)-flagged - include confiscation of passports, imposition of significant debts, physical violence, mental abuse, and excessive hours of work," the State Department says.

Pointing to Fairfax Media reports, it says Asians are also "allegedly victims of forced labour on fishing vessels in New Zealand waters."

A whole page of the report uses a New Zealand "reward offered" advertisement as an example of what it calls slavery.

Under a heading "Then and now: fleeing slavery", the State Department published 19th Century American ads offering rewards for catching runaway slaves.

It put it beside a New Zealand 21st century advertisement for a sailor who quit the fishing boat Oyang 70 in Dunedin - a $1000 reward was offered for his capture. Three years later Oyang 70 sank, with the loss of six men.

The US also questions the way in which Pacific Islanders are bought into the country to work in the agricultural sector but "are subsequently forced to work in conditions different from what was stipulated in their contracts.

"Some foreign workers report being charged excessive - and escalating - recruitment fees, experiencing unjustified salary deductions and restrictions on their movement, having their passports confiscated and contracts altered, or being subjected to a change in working conditions without their permission - all indicators of human trafficking."

The State Department says New Zealand fully complies with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and it had initiated research into trafficking in the fishing sector and the sex trade.

"(However), it made no convictions or prosecutions under the country's trafficking legislation."

The State Department recommends New Zealand enact legislation to expand New Zealand's current anti-trafficking legal framework to prohibit and adequately punish all forms of human trafficking.

It called for New Zealand to make greater efforts to assess the extent of sex and labour trafficking.

The State Department says it appears that New Zealand law does not criminalise all forms of forced labour.

"Although slavery is prohibited, its definition only covers situations of debt bondage and serfdom; thus, this prohibition does not cover forced labour obtained by means other than debt, law, custom, or agreement that prohibits a person from leaving employment," the report says.

There was no legal prohibition on the domestic recruitment, transfer, or transportation of adults for the purpose of exploitation.

Related articles

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• US Adds Syria to List of Countries Not Doing Enough to Fight Slavery (voanews.com)

Burmese ‘Slaves’ Rescued from Thai Fishing Boat | The Irrawaddy Magazine

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/2908 

Source: The Irrawaddy Magazine

By LAWI WENG / THE IRRAWADDY| April 23, 2012 |

Burmese human trafficking victims after the raid on the Thai
fishing boat on Friday. (Photo: Kyaw Thaung)

Twenty Burmese migrants were rescued when the fishing boat they were forced to work on was raided by the Thai authorities and human rights activists in Chonburi Province, south of Bangkok.

Kyaw Thaung, an spokesperson for the Burmese Association in Thailand (BAT) who was involved in the raid, said that the group was rescued at 3 am on Friday following a tip from one of the victims.

Some of those rescued had been forced to work as “slaves” on the fishing boat for over one year without being paid, he told The Irrawaddy on Monday.

Four people were arrested on the boat during the raid and another two Burmese men were detained later in Bangkok after the authorities followed up on information provided by the victims. Two ethnic Mon women from Burma were among the traffickers arrested on the boat, it has been claimed.

The victims apparently crossed over the Thai-Burmese border near Mae Sot with the assistance of brokers and were then handed to employment brokers in Thailand who arranged for them to join the fishing boat.

Among the 20 were three victims aged just 16 years old and another of around 40 years of age. Many were ethnic Burmese from Pegu Division, while others were ethnic Karen.

“They had to stay like animals, wearing dirty clothes and some people only had one set of clothes. They were locked up the whole time and watched by two guards,” said Kyaw Thaung.

Six of the victims have been detained in Nonthaburi Province with the rest staying at an anti-human trafficking office in Bangkok. Each may have to wait for around three to four months for the Thai courts to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators, and they will then be deported back to Burma.

Human trafficking is very prevalent in southern Thailand where there is a large fishing industry. Many Burmese migrants seek work in the area and end up being trafficked to fishing boats and forced to work for many months at sea for little or no pay.

According to a US report, the Thai government “reported 18 convictions in trafficking-related cases in 2010—an increase from eight known convictions during the previous year. As of May 2011, only five of the 18 convictions reported by the government could be confirmed as trafficking offenses.”