Fourteen migrant workers are facing up to one and a half year of imprisonment and/or fines of up to 30,000 Thai baht (US$900) for criminal defamation and other charges brought by Thammakaset Co. Ltd. The workers allege that the company seriously violated their rights. Migrant rights activist Andy Hall also faces criminal defamation charges related to the case. The use of defamation laws to go after investigators and workers seeking to document how companies in Thailand violate national labor laws and workers’ rights has a chilling impact on research into corporate supply chains.

STOP THE TRAFFIK is one of 87 organisations who have written to the Prime Minister of Thailand on this matter. You can read the letter at this link http://bit.ly/2yWh7Jt

Day Four

Yesterday we discussed where trafficking happens, the contributing factors that give rise to the exploitation and the resulting impact. Today we explored the challenges and devised roadmaps for addressing them.

Breaking into specific areas of expertise for in-depth discussion, collectively we looked at the different avenues for disrupting human trafficking:

The Legal Route

Advocacy

Prevention and Building Resilient Communities

Social Enterprise and Freedom Businesses  

Engaging with the Business Sector and Supply Chains

Aftercare

Trauma-informed Care

Research

In each group we continued the process of collective learning, sharing specialised knowledge of the area to discuss where we want to see future efforts focused and how we see the fight against human trafficking progressing.

Building roadmaps, everyone started with the question: what do we do next?

Some of the suggested signposts for future anti-trafficking work included:

Building capacity and awareness at grassroots level

More research to drive evidence-based policy

The use of supply chain technology such as LabourLink to give workers a direct channel of communication with companies to report exploitation

Job creation aimed at family members, rather than survivors of trafficking, during recovery

Using the legal system to support whatever conception of justice makes the individual victim feel whole – whether it is compensation, public accountability or moving on with their lives.

Roadmap from the Prevention and Building Resilient Communities group

Asked what they took away from the conference and what they learnt, participants noted:

The time was practical and valuable not only to learn new perspectives on potential solutions, but also to surface and agree on joint initiatives that we could implement to close some of the gaps. As a result, coming out of my working group I now have more work to do, but with the momentum of new ideas and new partners.

I learnt that there …

“Modern slavery doesn’t happen only in warzones. It exists in areas of both darkness and plain sight of people all over the world – even at sea … there are many, many stories … where unscrupulous fishermen use the isolation of the sea to hide their crimes … And the reasons aren’t hard to figure out. When criminals are able to turn a profit in an illegal fishing market, they’ll go after as many fish as possible. …the more labour they have on board, the larger their catches will be. The economic incentives are there, which is precisely why illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing practices have grown into a $20 billion a year industry.”  (Secretary of State John Kerry, Remarks at the 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report Ceremony, https://2009-2017.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2016/06/259227.htm (accessed 12/12/17))

Migrant workers from Cambodia, Myanmar and other neighbouring countries flood into Thailand, hoping for employment and support for their families. 82% end up on one of the 42,000 boats which employ 175,000 fishermen. “Not in the Same Boat,” a recent report done jointly by Issara Institute and International Justice Mission Thailand showed (https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/5bf36e_9ec3ea47011343158f7c76fc7f14591f.pdf)

• 37.9% had been trafficked
• a further 49.2 percent were likely to be trafficked
• leaving only 12.9% who were not trafficked
• 76.2% accrued debt (a precursor to bonded labour) prior to even beginning work

Overwork, crippling debts, physical and psychological abuse and restriction of freedom are common.

This Christmas join the movement fo a sea-change in the seafood industry. go to wwww.buyslavefree.org…

Above you will see the infographic that simply maps out the supply chain of farmed prawns. In the past, there has been human trafficking and slavery on the fishing vessels for the catching of “trash fish” for the production of fishmeal to feed the prawns, on the prawn farms, the processing/ peeling factories.

News providers including The Guardian, Associated Press, and The New York Times, have reported multiple instances of human trafficking in the prawn industry in Thailand and SE Asia. Despite recent governmental developments, a variety of issues remain including: high risk recruitment practices, labour agent practices, corruption, inadequate labour inspections and prosecution, and continuing indicators of forced labour.

Some companies like Nestlé, are finding that they are having to persist at tackling the problems in the supply chain. They have worked at increased supply chain traceability by forming additional partnerships with NGOs, government, and producers. BAP (The Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices) 3rd party certification program has seen the vulnerability of outsourcing and have gone as far as to prohibited outsourcing to prawn processing/peeling sheds. The supply chain issues are complex, hidden and because it is so profitable people trying to tackling the issues are having to persist.

Some helpful learnings on diligence and persistence in this area has been developed by NGO, Fishwise. They propose that seafood buyers for imported prawns (and seafood) should:

1.     Map it: Request full traceability to legal vessels, farms, and inputs

2.     Analyze: Conduct a risk assessment and focus work on areas of the highest risk

3.     Commit and track: Ensure that each link in the supply chain makes a binding, documentable commitment to social responsibility goals and to tracking progress against those goals

4.     Communicate with vendors: Share concerns with vendors and ensure improvements are …

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.…

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 …

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 …

Investigating the hidden side of life for migrant workers in Australia

When we think of exploitation and migrant workers, most might first think of places or industries in the developing world where economic settings or lack of regulation could create conditions for such unethical practices. But the truth is the risk is global.

Australia has long been known for the concept of the ‘fair go’; a culture of being reasonable, being fair, and providing equal opportunities. But issues relating to migrant workers are increasingly coming into the spotlight. With the launch of the ‘National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking and Slavery 2015-2019’, and plans to establish a Modern Slavery Act, conversations in Australia are including topics closer to home to address the challenges around migrant workers happening on our own soil. But to tackle this problem, we must first understand where this is happening, who this is happening to, and why this is occurring.

BUT WHERE?

Recently, several cases have come to light in Australia across different sectors:

• Agri-business: labor hire contractors making money from modern slavery of migrant workers
• Construction: labor exploitation of migrant workers
• Food and beverage: exploitation of workers at Domino’s Pizza
• Domestic workers: domestic workers treated like slaves
• Retail: convenience store chain7-ELEVEN underpaying workers

The report ‘Wage Theft in Australia: Findings of the National Temporary Migrant Work Survey’ was released by the Migrant Worker Justice Initiative together with UNSW Sydney and UTS in November 2017. The report details the findings of an expansive migrant worker survey, drawing on responses from over 4,000 temporary migrants of over 100 different nationalities working in a range of jobs in all states and territories. Key findings showed the widespread underpayment of migrant labor, particularly in food services and especially in fruit and vegetable picking. Severe underpayment was experienced by …

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