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Slavery, ‘pirate’ fishing and other serious crimes continue to plague Thailand’s seafood sector.

EJF believes that solutions to 'pirate' fishing and slavery in Thailand’s fishing sector are available, practical and achievable through a multi-track approach emphasising leadership, coordinated joint action and genuine commitment from all stakeholders. This report recalls and builds on the recommendations made in EJF’s 2015 report Pirates and Slaves. EJF also acknowledges and reiterates all recommendations made to Thailand in the 2015 US Department of State Trafficking in Persons report.

The report calls for overfishing, pirate fishing and modern-day slavery in the Thai fishing industry to be addressed as interconnected issues. It examines the complex and multi-faceted problems in Thailand’s fisheries sector and offers recommendations by which the Thai Government and producers, buyers, retailers and consumers of Thai seafood can tackle the root causes of the widespread environmental devastation and human rights abuses in the industry, and collectively secure truly sustainable, well-managed fisheries.

Effective fisheries management in Thailand could help combat pirate fishing, halt biodiversity loss, enable ecosystems and fish stocks to recover, and bring an end to human trafficking and devastating human rights abuses.

Featuring testimonies recorded during investigations in 2012, Impossibly Cheap: Abuse and Injustice in Bangladesh’s Shrimp Industry documents examples of hazardous working conditions, the use of child labour, bonded labour, withholding of pay, excessively low wages, health and safety violations, restricted union activities, verbal abuse and excessive hours.

Impossibly Cheap: Abuse and Injustice in Bangladesh’s Shrimp Industry follows EJF's The Hidden Cost report, published in September 2013, which documents accounts of human trafficking into the Thai shrimp industry, confiscation of identification documents, withholding of pay, forced detention and bonded labour.

The report exposes the reliance of Thailand’s shrimp industry on migrant workers, many of whom are trafficked and face arduous journeys, and even armed robbery, before enduring abusive conditions in shrimp processing factories. During investigations carried out in October 2012 and March 2013, EJF gathered evidence of perilous human trafficking into Thailand, as well as serious labour and human rights violations in shrimp facilities.

The Hidden Cost: Human Rights Abuses in Thailand’s Shrimp Industry follows EJF’s Sold to the Sea report, published in May this year, which revealed evidence of human trafficking, labour abuse and the routine use of violence, including murder, in the Thai fishing industry.