Sustainable Economy Series: Part 1 Slavery in the Shrimp Industry

On June 10 The Guardian published the findings of a six-month investigation into the shrimp
industry, which revealed that global retailers Walmart, Costco, Carrefour, and esco have been
selling shrimp produced by forced laborers in hailand! he internet exploded at this news and
numerous articles appeared about the issue! "owever, while we admire The Guardian#s efforts to
uncover the truth, we must as$% why is this news at all& "uman-rights groups exposed slavery in the
shrimp industry years ago' Why is it that we only care if commercial giants li$e Walmart are
involved& (n spite of the delayed reaction, we hope that this latest report will provide the much-
needed wa$e-up call to spur people to action!
)ccording to the *lobal +lavery (ndex, there are nearly ,00,000 enslaved persons in hailand! o
put it another way, that#s half a million human beings living without basic freedom! he concept of
slavery may seem ancient to )mericans, as our government abolished the practice bac$ in the 1-
th

century! .ut we must remember that slavery is illegal in hailand too! (n fact, it has been outlawed
in practically every country in the world! (llegality alone does not prevent human rights violations,
even on this scale! (n the case of hailand, the outlawing of slavery is not supported by robust labor
legislation! hus shrimp wor$ers are still ostensibly laborers li$e anyone else, except that they
cannot freely come and go to wor$, or receive protection from exploitation and mistreatment! his
is the dar$er side of global economy% Westerners buying an inexpensive product in a store,
blissfully ignorant of its true cost in human suffering!
hailand depends heavily on shrimp a/uaculture, which means that the shrimp are not caught in the
open sea but raised in manmade ponds! Originally a/uaculture was meant to reduce processing
costs and ma$e seafood more affordable, with the ultimate aim of mitigating the effects of
overfishing and alleviating world hunger! 0nfortunately it has /uic$ly evolved into a lucrative
export business, where processing plants utili1e cheap labor to sell more and more shrimp to
importers! hese plants fre/uently cut corners with regard to wages, health, safety, and
environmental standards! )s the industry expands, regulations become increasingly difficult to
enforce! 2ven the .est )/uaculture 3ractices 4.)35, developed by the )/uaculture Certification
Council 4)CC5, fail miserably in the most important areas% wor$ing hours, wor$er rights in
subcontracted facilities, and international migrant rights standards! (nstead of an impartial third-
party evaluation, the implementation of guidelines and reporting of conditions is left up to the farms
and plants themselves! (nspectors also have little experience in labor relations!
We must reiterate that The Guardian#s report does not reveal anything new! (n 6007 a collaborative
effort by the (nternational 8abor Organi1ation 4(8O5 and hailand#s 9ahidol 0niversity found that
employers in seafood processing plants are ignorant of fundamental wor$er rights, employing
children and migrant wor$ers for more than eight hours a day 4sometimes twelve5, often without
safety e/uipment! (t is common for overseers to verbally and physically abuse the wor$ers,
especially children! (n this environment, the production /uota is $ing! :ailure to meet the /uota
results in overtime and withholding of wages! )lthough wor$ers get sic$ and in;ured due to the
harsh chemicals and lac$ of safety, they have no access to medical care inside the factory! :irst aid
simply doesn#t exist! Wor$ers are paid <piece rates,= or a fixed rate per $ilogram of processed
shrimp! he faster they wor$, the more money they earn> but a human being, already overwor$ed,
underfed, and stressed, can only do so much!
One of the most important revelations?predating the 601@ report?came from a 6007 hai raid on
the Aanya 3aew factory in +amut +a$hon, a province where the ma;ority of shrimp processing ta$es
place! here police and immigration authorities discovered a virtual fortress with 17-foot-high walls
topped with barbed wire, an armed guard force, and security cameras! (nside the factory, the
employees, most of whom were .urmese migrants, wor$ed 17- to 60-hour shifts, often receiving
reduced or no pay for months because the managers owed money to the labor agents or had to buy
basic necessities for the factory! :or mista$es, as$ing for sic$ leave, attempting to escape, or often
for no reason at all, the wor$ers were sub;ected to various $inds of abuse, including sexual
molestation and public humiliation! hai authorities sent some of the wor$ers to a shelter, deported
others, and sent the rest bac$ to wor$! he owner received a fine merely for employing children
under 1, and not providing leave! he Aanya 3aew factory remains in operation today!
)s the Aanya 3aew incident shows, migrant wor$ers play a $ey role in the hai shrimp industry,
and yet they usually receive the worst treatment! he shrimp processing wor$force consists chiefly
of .urmese, but also includes Cambodians and 8aotians! Bue to the oppressive regime in .urma,
millions have fled to see$ a better life, and they are attracted by the demand for wor$ers in
hailand! .ut it#s not simply a matter of immigrating to hailand! hese are undocumented
wor$ers, and as such they must trust agents and bro$ers to smuggle them into the country and get
them a ;ob! (n this vulnerable position, they are easily exploited! :irst they pay agents to bring them
into hai territory! hen they pay, or promise to pay, labor bro$ers who will place them in a factory
or a shrimp farm! 8ittle do the migrants $now that the bro$ers have no compunction about selling
them to shrimp boat captains for as little as C@60 a head!
"ere The Guardian#s report sheds more light on this already disturbing reality! 2scaped slaves say
that on the boats they are forced to wor$ 60-hour shifts, with little food, sometimes chained li$e an
animal! hey are regularly beaten, tortured, $illed, and even drugged with methamphetamines to
maintain the wor$ rate! +ome migrants are trapped in this situation for years, being sold from ship
to ship as in the traditional slave trade!
(f the migrants aren#t sold to boat captains, they are enslaved through debt bondage and document
restriction! (n the former case, they promise to pay the bro$ers and agents with money from their
new ;obs, but this means they#ll be wor$ing without wages for months or years! hey are paid at the
whim of the managers, who are in league with the bro$ers! (n the latter case, documented wor$ers
have their papers ta$en from them to $eep them from leaving, while the undocumented ones are
prevented from ever obtaining papers! (f the wor$ers remain unregistered, they can be more easily
intimidated and controlled!
Criminals and the hai mafia control the shrimp industry, but they are aided and abetted by the
government and labor bro$ers! 9oreover, the big firms subcontract the wor$ out to smaller
factories, which race to complete short-term orders and ma$e a profit?at the expense of wor$er
welfare! he bro$ers possess considerable power, since they supply cheap labor and handle
whatever the employers don#t want to deal with! :actory owners pay the bro$ers, who pay the
wor$ers but $eep a portion for themselves! Wor$ers# pay stubs may show a certain amount, but they
actually receive less due to deductions! he bro$ers also provide housing, registration, and conflict
resolution, so that the employers can avoid responsibility for ta$ing care of the wor$ers and ma$ing
sure they#re documented! )fter spending time in deportation centers, .urmese migrants face
poverty, imprisonment, and torture in .urma!
9igrant wor$ers also face discrimination! (n 600D wor$ers at an unnamed factory claimed that
migrants had to wear different-colored uniforms than native hai wor$ers! 0nli$e hai citi1ens,
migrants are usually not allowed to leave the factory, even to see$ medical care! 9igrants also
receive fewer social services in general!
+o-called <inspectors= come to the factories but visit management first to arrange temporarily better
conditions for a good report! Courts delay prosecuting human-traffic$ing cases, and the hai
government lac$s a unified policy, dividing the wor$ up among multiple departments! Eo
government or law enforcement official seems above accepting a bribe! 2mployers routinely get
away with horrible abuses! Organi1ed crime and big business dominate the industry, leaving the
wor$ers without a voice!
We now await the 601@ raffic$ing in 3ersons 4i35 report, which will be published by the 0+ +tate
Bepartment later this month and could very well relegate hailand to the tier-F watch list, placing it
in the company of (ran, Eorth Gorea, and +audi )rabia! )s a tier-F nation, hailand would receive
little 0+ aid and have restricted access to the World .an$ and (nternational 9onetary :und!
Eevertheless, hailand has no incentive to ta$e action on the issue, because its booming seafood
industry relies on slave labor! Without cheap, expendable wor$ers, the industry would collapse! (t#s
up to consumers li$e you and me to refuse to buy slave-produced seafood, forcing the giant retailers
to implement supply-chain standards, and in turn showing the exporters in hailand that human and
labor rights violations will $ill their profits!
To know more details you can also visit this website as http://gbrionlineorg/