Thread: Spotlight on serious woes that plague fishing sector

CORRUPTION, high registration fees, exploitative Thai employers and a lack of government support are the key issues behind the violation of human rights and other industry-related problems, a seminar was told yesterday.

The speakers at a Chulalongkorn University seminar also offered solutions, such as: educating fishing trawler owners about human rights, more participation by government agencies and non-government groups, and effective law enforcement. These topics will be presented in a meeting next week with the National Council for Peace and Order.

Thai Tuna Industry Association chairman, Chanin Chalissarapong, said Thai authorities or international or independent bodies like the International Labour Organisation, should work to combat human trafficking while law enforcement must be more efficient and straightforward. He said a long-term solution to the problems would be a limit on the number of fishing trawlers.

Thai Overseas Fishers’ Association (TOFA) manager, Pornpoj Ngamwiriyatham, said abuse of migrant crew members could not be solved immediately because not all owners of fishing trawlers were TOFA members. He claimed that many documentary reports which convinced the US to downgrade Thailand were exaggerated or re-edited, using old information on abuses that had decreased, or did not exist.

The Labour Rights Promotion Network Foundation, through senior official Sompong Sakaew, condemned corrupt officials.

Read more here: Spotlight on serious woes that plague fishing sector - The Nation

Its basically modern day slavery really. Very poor show indeed.