Survivors Of Thai Death Ships Sue Owners

[sriracha john]

Migrant workers load fish into a truck at the jetty in Samut Sakhon on the outskirts of Bangkok. Survivors of a Thai fishing fleet left adrift in Indonesian waters without enough food or water, causing the deaths of 39 fishermen whose bodies were thrown overboard, sued the owner on Monday for unpaid wages.

REUTERS

Sangiem Fuangfu ® and his friends, survivors of a Thai fishing fleet left adrift without enough food or water, sit at the province labour central court in Samut Sakhon on the outskirts of Bangkok. Survivors of a Thai fishing fleet left adrift in Indonesian waters without enough food or water, causing the deaths of 39 fishermen whose bodies were thrown overboard, sued the owner on Monday for unpaid wages.

REUTERS

Burmese seaman Soe Moe, 27, arrives at the province labour central court in Samut Sakhon on the outskirts of Bangkok. Survivors of a Thai fishing fleet left adrift in Indonesian waters without enough food or water, causing the deaths of 39 fishermen whose bodies were thrown overboard, sued the owner on Monday for unpaid wages.

REUTERS

Survivors of Thai death ships sue firm

MAHACHAI, Thailand: Survivors of a Thai fishing fleet left adrift in Indonesian waters without enough food or water, causing the deaths of 39 fishermen whose bodies were thrown overboard, sued the owner yesterday for unpaid wages.

Activists hope the landmark court case involving 61 survivors and relatives of the dead will lead to criminal charges and expose what they call a modern form of slave labour involving illegal migrants from neighbouring Myanmar.

“There was no food, no vegetables. Just smelly rice,” Soe Moe, a 27-year-old Burmese seamen, said at the Labour Court in Mahachai, a fishing port on the Gulf of Thailand.

“There were dead bodies close to me. I was afraid I was going to die,” said Soe Moe, who is demanding 100,000 baht ($2,850) in wages.

The fleet of six trawlers operated by a family-owned firm, Praphasnavee, sailed from Mahachai in 2003 with crews of mainly illegal Burmese migrant workers, who were given false Thai names and documentation.

Part of an area known as “Little Myanmar”, Mahachai, in the province of Samut Sakhon, is home to a major fisheries industry that employs tens of thousands of Burmese migrant workers.

Soe Moe, who was given the Thai alias Saichon, said he had expected to stay in Indonesian waters for 45-day rotations for a number of years. In fact, many of them spent 35 months on board, working shifts with only 2-3 hours sleep, without setting foot on land.

They were resupplied monthly with food and fresh water by supply boats which took their frozen catch back to port. After 2-years, permits for the six trawlers to fish in Indonesian waters expired. While they were waiting for renewed permits, the supply ships did not come, survivors said. With no fresh food or water for more than two months and little money to buy supplies from other ships, men began to die. Some of the victims became bloated and bled from the nose, ears and anus before they died, survivors said.

“I was almost unconscious. I didn’t know when they would dump me into the sea like others,” Thai survivor Sangiem Fuangfu said. In all, 39 men died, of whom two were buried in Indonesia.

The other 37 bodies were thrown overboard “because the captain thought taking them back to Thailand would cause him trouble”, Soe Moe said.

When they returned to Mahachai in July last year, the survivors were each given 3,000 baht. When their repeated requests for unpaid wages were batted away by the employers, they enlisted help of the NGO Legal Rights Protection Network (LPN) to fight their cause.

“No value was placed on the lives of these seafarers, considered as little more than slaves by the employer,” LPN has said.

– Reuters

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C'mon Thailand.... His Majesty King Chulalongkorn abolished slavery in 1905....

[LaoPo]

I hope -Thai- justice will be done for these poor souls..........

This is the 21st Century....

LaoPo

[ZukiSuzuki]

Business is business, these people were disposable assets.

[leisurely]

I really hope that something favourable happens for these innocent people, however I won't hold my breath .

One interessting thing that I have observed today, there is a debate raging over 10 year old drivers that has three pages of replies, these unfortunate people have four now.

[LaoPo]

I really hope that something favourable happens for these innocent people, however I won't hold my breath .

One interessting thing that I have observed today, there is a debate raging over 10 year old drivers that has three pages of replies, these unfortunate people have four now.

Agree.

Maybe 39 lives of Burmese Fishermen aren't worth the compassion.

I guarantee however that 39 Thai or Farang lives would have had more attention, a lot more

LaoPo

[sbk]

Economic hardship makes people desperate and desperate people make easy targets. Remember the story of the illegal Thai immigrants locked into their factory in LA?

You can read stories about these kinds of occurrences around the world. Unfortunately, for some people, profit is more important than human lives.

[jasreeve17]

"A memoir of Burmese Workers: from slave labour to illegal migrant workers"

www.tacdb.org

It makes for sad reading.

[Sing_Sling]

Sued for wages?

That's it?

[andook]

Illegal immigrants seem to be the norm on Thai fishing vessels. They are routinely unpaid and mistreated, yet there is seemingly no shortage of applicants, giving a clue to what life in Burma must really be like...

The worst naval experience I ever had was crewing a red ship that collided with a similar-sized blue ship, and we were all marooned for days.

[Sing_Sling]

The worst naval experience I ever had was crewing a red ship that collided with a similar-sized blue ship, and we were all marooned for days.

Purple bruises?

[andook]

The worst naval experience I ever had was crewing a red ship that collided with a similar-sized blue ship, and we were all marooned for days.

Purple bruises?

Rrrrr, lad, shiver me timbers; Something similar. Not to worry however, as worse things happen at sea... Rrrrr.

[Tony Clifton]

Business is business, these people were disposable assets.

Business my a55.

Take the fleet away from the owner/s and let the suing crew own the fleet. See how other fleet owners treat their crews from afterwards.

[cm-happy]

I hope -Thai- justice will be done for these poor souls..........

This is the 21st Century....

LaoPo

Yes agree! But for some reason TIT keeps coming to mind. Would a Thai court rule in favor of Burmese over Thais?? Lets see if justice pevails and that Thailand is a nation of laws. I fear wishful thinking on my part.

[kuransatien]

Any further developments on this court ruling ?

I hope -Thai- justice will be done for these poor souls..........

This is the 21st Century....

LaoPo

Yes agree! But for some reason TIT keeps coming to mind. Would a Thai court rule in favor of Burmese over Thais?? Lets see if justice pevails and that Thailand is a nation of laws. I fear wishful thinking on my part.

Anyone knows or have information how did Thai court ruled ? What kind of atterney they have working for them, sue for unpaid wages ? What about the fact that they were left for death ?