Seafish briefing on labour issues in Thailand's warm water prawn supply chain. December 2014.

Summary

The Thai government has long faced criticism for its failure to curb labour and human rights abuses occurring in the country, however attention came to a head in June 2014 with the publication of a series of articles and videos in the Guardian newspaper containing allegations of human trafficking and slave labour in the Thai seafood industry. At the same time the US State Department downgraded Thailand to a Tier 3 ranking on its 2014 Trafficking in Persons report. Tier 3 status indicates insufficient improvement of ongoing human trafficking problems in a number of Thailand’s industries, including its seafood industry. The TIP Report highlights the existence of forced labour, human trafficking, and other abuses on Thai vessels that harvest wild fish for Thai shrimp feed, and the Guardian articles have connected those supply chains to leading producers and retailers. The UK seafood industry is taking this issue very seriously and there are moves to ensure that each link in the supply chain is not implicated in any form of labour abuse. Whilst there is a fundamental need to improve the situation this document highlights the positive movement for change that is underway.

Author

• Karen Green

Publication date

01 December 2014