On edge of U.S. sanctions, Thailand officials order human-trafficking inspection in Sattahip

An inspection crew prepares to board a local fishing vessel.

SATTAHIP:--As Thailand edges nearer to suffering sanctions from the United States over its record in preventing human trafficking, a fleet of government, police and welfare organizations launched a large-scale inspection of fishing boats based in Sattahip.

Twenty people representing more than a dozen agencies took a Sattahip Marine Police boat out of Warasin Pier to inspect fishing boats and cargo ships in Samae San Bay to check whether workers were being treated fairly, being held captive or oppressed by employers.

Wichian Sangiam of the Chonburi Labor Protection and Welfare Office said the inspection was done according to urgent policies of the Minister of Labor to eliminate human-trafficking problems.

The inspection - along with the ministry’s stepped up concern - came just days after a battery of international human-rights organizations petitioned the U.S. government to downgrade Thailand’s standing on the State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report. The kingdom was listed on Tier II in the 2013, but activists, not to mention many American politicians, want Thailand dropped to Tier III.

- See more at: http://www.pattayamail.com/localnews/on-edge-of-u-s-sanctions-thailand-officials-order-human-trafficking-inspection-in-sattahip-37767#sthash.O7mATrzW.dpuf

-- Pattaya Mail 2014-05-23

must have had some embarrassing results because "No information on what they found whilst out to sea was released."

If they actually wanted to see trafficking, they are in the wrong spot. They need to

head down to Ranong in south Thailand to see the Burmese refugees being trafficked.

Regarding being cagey with the results, I suspect they found a whole lot of underpaid

Burmese and Khmer boat workers... :-)

Edited May 29, 201412 yr by EyesWideOpen