There are many horror stories about Cambodian and Burmese men being used as slave labour on Thai fishing boats, but few victims ever get the chance to tell their stories to the world. Now one Cambodian survivor of the Thai fishing industry has written about and also illustrated his ordeal in a book that will soon be released.

 

“The Dead Eye and The Deep Blue Sea” was put together by Prum Vannak Anan, who spent five years meticulously drawing pencil illustrations depicting the hardships he faced on a Thai fishing trawler. After travelling to Thailand in search of a good job, Mr Anan fell prey to human traffickers and was held as a slave on a Thai fishing boat for four years, from 2006 to 2009, until he escaped by jumping ship and swimming for his life in waters off Malaysia.

 

But his ordeal didn’t end there. His rescuers on the Malaysian coast sold him to a plantation, where he was forced into labour for another year before an NGO helped him return to his family in Cambodia. Mr Anan originally decided to migrate to Thailand because his family was very poor and his wife was due to give birth in two months.

 

read more http://www.khmertimeskh.com/50108991/drawing-from-tough-times-on-a-thai-trawler/

 

 

-- © Copyright Khmer Times 16/02

I bet this book will be banned in Thailand....can't have the truth coming out now can we...!!!