#slavefreeseafood stopthetraffik togetherwecan

[stopthetraffikau-blog]

Fisherman Traps in SE Asia

When the financial crisis hit, Samart lost his job as a secu­rity guard in Bangkok. Preparing to go home to an impoverished area in NE Thailand, a friendly man invited him for a drink, to talk about a job on a fishing vessel. Samart decided not to take the job, but, after a few sips of his drink, he passed out. When he woke, he was astounded to find himself on a boat off Singapore – and would soon be sent into Indonesian waters, where he would remain trapped for 7 years – he was traded between boats at sea numerus times when their catch was loaded onto a larger vessel. This is how some powerless vulnerable people have found themselves trapped in slavery in the fishing industry.

Thailand is the world’s fourth-largest exporter of seafood according to UNFAO. Vulnerable migrant workers, mainly from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, but also impov­erished Thais, have for years been lured onto fishing boats with promises of well-paid jobs, so many never receive salaries. This is starting to change with the biggest companies like Thai Union (a company not a union) is restructuring its operations to protect against labour abuses - but it is difficult to establish how many people remain trapped at sea because they are often hidden and lost in a large ocean with many threats and with many fearing for their life – for good reasons! “Being on a fishing boat is like having your life hang by a thread,” says Samart in the SCMP, other survivors who have been maimed at sea have told LPN that they have seen their friends killed at sea.

In Benjini and Ambon in Indonesia, officials visited these places because of media reports. Rumours got around of a possible rescue. First in 2’s and 3’s they saunted in then as the story that it was real swept through the communities they streamed in from their fishing trawlers, down the hills and even out of the jungle “running towards what they had hoped for, for years: freedom!”. AP

We cannot sit back and be moved by these stories without taking an action to help clean up the industry. Good things are starting to happen – we have to make this the new culture of fishing. Sign the petition by clicking on “Ask For A Sea-change” on the website www.buyslavefree.org

[stopthetraffikau-blog]

Labour Agents and Slavery

Much of the human trafficking in the seafood industry in SE Asia is with migrant workers. The trade is in human beings and the currency is hope. Most of these people come from poverty crushing realities and are looking for a better life, or looking to how they might make some money to take home or send back to their families – so they can have a better life. If they get trapped and trafficked, it not only makes it very difficult to live with, but it also makes it difficult to go back home. They know that if they return empty handed or having to explained why they did not succeed, then they are shamed - and it can force them to stay even longer.

Labour agents have played on that vulnerability. One of the biggest tools they have is to offer hope, then they build trust, and then they deceive them. It is so crushing and so devastating. There are so many stories of people signing up with a work agent who tells them it will cost US$1000 to use their job finding services and the jobs that they have on their books. They are told that they can pay that off easily over a number of years. They take them to the border and hand them over to another agent. They get transported to where they were told the job would be - but this new agent tells them they must pay the money now! When they say they were told they could pay it off over a number of years they are told they know nothing about that.

When they say they do not have the money, they are told that they will have to go wherever they are told, their identity papers are taken away and they find themselves on a boat till the amount is paid off – and with a high interest being charged. This is called bonded labour and it is a form of slavery.

 I have talked to a person in that this happened to Thailand. He was from Myanmar. He found that the interest charged meant he had to work on a boat for 17 years. During that time, he was never allowed to leave the boat even when it came into port – consequently he did not walk on land for the full 17 years. 

This reality has been so bad that many in the industry are pushing for a policy that they will not use any agent that has charged the workers fees. 

[stopthetraffikau-blog]

Labour rights in Seafood Industry in Thailand

Thailand has over 2mil migrant workers with 80% of those coming from Myanmar. In the fishing industry, the largest group affected by slavery in the seafood industry are people from Myanmar. Sompong Srakaew founded the Labour Rights Promotion Network (LPN) in 2006 because of the injustices he saw in the treatment of migrant workers in Thailand’s seafood processing industry. Sompong began working on migrant worker issues as early as the 1990s, after graduating with a degree in social work.

LPN’s ultimate goal is to empower workers and their communities and improve working conditions across the seafood-processing sector. LPN is actively establishing partnerships with the private sector in and around Samut Sakhon province to promote greater supply chain transparency and foster improved working conditions. The organization’s “Worker Voice Program” raises awareness about labour rights among Thai and migrant workers. LPN is also developing The Fishermen Centre Prototype to address the root cause of human trafficking and IUU fishing in Southeast Asia’s fishing sector. MAST's immediate goals include the establishment of fishermen drop-in centres at major ports where fishing workers can receive direct assistance (legal aid, health services, food & shelter), access information about their rights, and organize into their own volunteer networks. LPN has the vision to expand to 22 coastal provinces. 

LPN, MAST (Multi-stakeholder Initiative for Accountable Supply Chain of Thai Fisheries), and Chicago-Kent College of Law are also developing the “Digital Intake @ Fishermen Centre” to set the prototype of an official grievance mechanism for more convenience and the best benefit for fishermen. Working with MAST, Chicago-Kent, and TMFG (Thai and Migrant Fishers Union Group), the plan is to use this new approach to develop the drop-in centre into a real “Fishermen Centre” for the digital era.

Video Clip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSD5pCn7DMc