Antislavery Usable Past

Men, women and children are victims of human trafficking for forced labour in the Thai fishing industry. Enslaved people are subjected to physical abuse, excessive and inhumane working hours, sleep and food deprivation, forced use of methamphetamines and long trips at sea confined to the vessel. Due to the fishing industry relying on trans-shipments at sea to reduce expenditure, some find themselves trapped on long-haul trawlers for years at a time. This makes the monitoring of enslaves labour on fishing vessels costly and difficult. The Thai Government has faced severe pressure to tackle forced labour specifically in the fishing sector, with the European Commission threatening a trade ban in 2015 for not taking sufficient measures to combat illegal and unregulated fishing that would cause the loss of up to US$1.4million a year in seafood exports. As a result the Government have reportedly accelerated efforts to combat labour exploitation, however despite this most workers in the Thai fishing sectors remain unregistered.

Vannak sought work away from home in order to provide for his family. He was offered a job by a taxi driver drying fish in Thailand and told that if he refused he would have to pay for the journey, money he did not have. Vannak was locked up and forced on to a fishing boat where he worked for 3 years under the constant threat of violence and never receiving any salary for his work. Eventually, Vannak escaped, swimming twenty minutes to shore and making his way back to Cambodia and his family.