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Forced Labor in Songkhla (2023)

A forced labor case from 2023 in Songkhla, Thailand. 1 source on file.

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What happened

Human Rights Watch documented systemic forced labor aboard Thai fishing vessels, interviewing 248 current and former fishers, mostly from Myanmar and Cambodia, who described confiscated documents, 14+ hour days, and confinement at sea for months. Accused: Thai fishing vessel owners and captains.

Response and intervention

Human Rights Watch Hidden Chains investigation, 2015-2017. EU issued a yellow card warning to Thailand over illegal, unreported fishing practices. Some survivors connected to NGO support through HRW and partner organizations.

Forced Labor2009

Trang Province in southern Thailand, Thailand, 2009

Thailand TH

In October, police in Thailand, as well as human rights activists in Mahachai, raided two of the brokers houses, rescuing 18 detained fishermen. Many other men were found locked up in cabins on a ship. These men were forced work on fishing boats for many months without pay–many of them were forbidden to even go onto shore. Some were even killed, or thrown overboard, if they questioned authority. Most of the victims were ethnic Mon, from eastern Burma. Many of the 51 men were from the Irrawaddy delta, Pegu, Mon State and Tenassirm Division. Authorities have arrested several of the traffickers, however many of them escaped. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17331

1 sourceArchive 2008–2016
Sex Trafficking2009

Ranong, Trang, South Thailand, Thailand, 2009

Thailand TH

Victims trafficked by Burmese gangs. Two of the brokers are ethnic Mon men from Burma. Most traffickers worked on and ran fishing boats. They trafficked the victims by road and told them they would work on a construction site, earning a sufficient wage. If captives complained, the traffickers threw them overboard or sold them to other boats.

Needs a sourceArchive 2008–2016
CSEC2011

Anlong Veng, Cambodia, Thailand, 2011

Thailand TH

"The three unmarked police cars ahead of us pulled up in front of the brothel, and the police and prosecutor ran in. Somaly and I followed and watched as police with assault rifles confiscated cellphones from the brothel manager, a middle-aged woman, and her male partner, so that they couldn’t call for reinforcements. We quickly found five girls and one young woman, three Cambodians and three Vietnamese. The youngest turned out to be a seventh grader trafficked from Vietnam three months earlier, making her about 12 years old. The anti-trafficking police found 10 rooms equipped with beds and full of discarded condoms in the trash; the rooms all locked with padlocks from the outside, presumably to incarcerate girls inside. Several other young girls Somaly had photographed in her earlier visit couldn’t be found, despite a frantic search of all the locked rooms. 'They’re probably kept at another house in town, but we don’t know where it is,' Somaly said." --http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/opinion/sunday/kristof-fighting-back-one-brothel-raid-at-a-time.html

1 sourceArchive 2008–2016