Rights groups urge Thailand to end project that sends prisoners to sea
Amy Sawitta Lefevre
Reuters

BANGKOK: -- More than a dozen rights groups urged Thailand on Thursday to end a project to recruit prisoners to work on fishing boats, saying it would not address problems in the fishing industry and posed a serious threat to prisoners' rights.

Thailand is the world’s third-largest seafood exporter. Its fishing industry employs more than 300,000 people, many of them illegal migrant workers from neighbouring countries who are often subject to ill-treatment.

A labour shortage in the industry has also partly fuelled human trafficking to meet demand for manpower in the fishing sector. Rights groups say the pilot project would fail to stop the illicit trade.

"This project poses a serious threat to the human rights of prisoners," said a letter to Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha signed by 45 non-governmental organisations.

"The project will also likely fail to address the fundamental causes of the labour shortage that fuels trafficking in Thailand’s fishing industry."

Abuses recorded in the fishing industry include human trafficking, forced labour and violence. That has threatened business and put Thailand under international pressure to respond.

The warning comes as Thailand scrambles to boost its record in fighting human trafficking ahead of a U.S. deadline to show improvement.

In December the Labour Ministry said that it would send consenting prisoners who had less than a year left of their sentence to go and work on fishing boats to ease a labour shortage and to combat human trafficking.

On Wednesday the ministry said that the scheme was intended to help ex-prisoners find work and would not send current inmates to sea.

"We’ve found that ex-prisoners are not welcome in the Thai workforce so we’ve found a way to help them," Labour Minister Surasak Karnjanarat told Reuters.

A pilot programme in Samut Sakhon province, west of the capital Bangkok, was currently employing 173 ex-prisoners to work on fishing boats, he added.

Thailand is ranked one of the world’s worst centres of human trafficking. It was downgraded to the lowest "Tier 3" status last June on the U.S. State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report for not fully complying with minimum standards for its elimination.

Prayut has acknowledged the complicity of some Thai authorities in smuggling people and forcing them to work in the fishing industry.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Rights-groups-urge-Thailand-to-end-project-that-se-30251945.html


-- The Nation 2015-01-15

Imagine being at sea on a boat full of ex-cons.

Got to be a better way to make a living than that .

.......more insanity.....

...what does it matter what is right or wrong.....

...300,000 illegals in the fishing industry alone.....

...a known fact......

Sounds like a cottage industry to me.

I really cannot believe that this is for the edification of the prisoners, and moreover the well being of society after the prisoners are released.

>>Prayut has acknowledged the complicity of some Thai authorities in smuggling people and forcing them to work in the fishing industry.<< Quote

Dear Prayut, let me remind you, that you are in charge of "some Thai authorities", so address the problem!!

Far more important than your parade yesterday, cleaning beaches and moving street vendors!!

This issue is making Thailand (even more) a pariah in the eyes of the world community.

Action, my Dear Leader!!

Yep, I imagined a boat full of ex-cons and the thought brought me back in time to the 1600's. Hmmmm? Perhaps History might have a chance of repeating itself?

China certainly doesn't worry about human rights, and we buy everything from them down to the kitchen sink.

USA certainly deosn't give a hoot about human rights ... guantanamo bay is a prime example.

Human rights has never been a priority for Thailand. Afterall, when there are so many tourists coming these days, why should they worry about what the west thinks,

when clearly they don't practise what they preach ?

Imagine being at sea on a boat full of ex-cons.

Got to be a better way to make a living than that .

Imagine crims actually doing something and paying for their crime?

Nah the western way is much better ....to pay megabucks for some low IQ dork to watch other low IQ dorks for ever.

That they think sending prisoners to the fishing industry to work as slave labor is "helping" them shows you they just don't get it. And because they don't get it, they probably will not effectively reform the fishing industry until after their exports get banned by the EU.

.......more insanity.....

...what does it matter what is right or wrong.....

...300,000 illegals in the fishing industry alone.....

...a known fact......

Whereas in enlightened Farang Land:

The Australian government has admitted it has 153 people, including children, in custody at sea while it fights a High Court challenge to any plans to send them back to Sri Lanka.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/08/world/asia/australia-asylum-boat-custody/

Abuses recorded in the fishing industry include human trafficking, forced labour and violence.

They left out one important component of human trafficking...MURDER!

Maybe send the student gangs to do some "internships" on these floating ships from hell.....

If i was locked up in a THAI prison and someone offered me a volunteer gig to get some fresh air

and work outdoors..i think i might take it......then jump off the boat as soon as im out in open seas..

Maybe like LT Dan in Forrest Gump..where he starts swimming away..or like Wilson floating off....

Seems a much better way to go IMO than to stay in the prison or work on that death ship.....

Imagine being at sea on a boat full of ex-cons.

Got to be a better way to make a living than that .

No different that the fishing industry any where else in the world.

It does seem wrong but I have to admit, i would rather see criminals forced to be slaves than poor innocent people trying to make a living. I would love to see the whole taksin clan and their cronies forced to spend some time on those boats paying their incredible debt to society. And just for you trolls out there....yes I would like to see all other criminals too not just the red shirts!!

Imagine being at sea on a boat full of ex-cons.

Got to be a better way to make a living than that .

They wont be ex-cons, they will be serving cons.