More than three years after an investigation by the Guardian revealed that Thai fishing boats were enslaving their workers, Human Rights Watch reports that little has changed in the Thai seafood supply chain.
The Guardian’s 2014 investigation found that workers on some Thai fishing boats were held against their will and forced to work in horrific conditions without pay. The Thai government responded with new regulations and reforms. But Human Rights Watch finds in its new report, released January 23, that the reforms “have had little effect on human rights abuses that workers face at the hands of ship owners, senior crew, brokers, and police officers.”
Soon after the investigation, European and American supermarkets, buyers, and suppliers who source seafood from Thailand founded the Seafood Task Force. The group’s aims include improving accountability, traceability, and regulatory compliance in the seafood industry.
But their efforts have not yet contributed to any systemic changes, environmentalists say. Steve Trent, chief executive of the Environmental Justice Foundation, which has been working on this issue, told the Guardian that “buyers and retailers have failed comprehensively to play their part in finding a real solution.”