Plan to send prisoners to sea sinks

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A radical plan by the Thai government to put prisoners to work on the country's under-staffed fishing boats has been scrapped, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday, following charges the scheme threatened inmates' rights.

Rights groups had also argued the idea would fail to address the fundamental causes of the labour shortage that fuels human trafficking in Thailand’s fishing industry.

Thailand is the world’s third-largest seafood exporter and 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.

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

Thailand is ranked one of the world’s worst centres of human trafficking.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday that the plan had been withdrawn, adding that it was an "exploratory idea" and part of a government policy to help prisoners reintegrate into society.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Plan-to-send-prisoners-to-sea-sinks-30252278.html

-- The Nation 2015-01-20

Pathetic idea from the very beginning,

but it generated a tremendous headline

for it's demise.

How's about Australia?

The rights of prisoners , they have no right to sea trips on the public purse that's the only right as far as I can see.

Plan to send prisoners to sea stinks.

I thought they already did that. Oh wait I am getting confused, that was the

Thai navy sending out Rohingya refugees to die in vessels with no engines...

So not sure if those refugees were prisoners or not.

OK guys, just try to imagine the order of those fisher boats with inmates on board ...

I think it was a great idea, let the prisoner out on boats, drink plenty of whisky and generally create havoc... I wonder what kind of numbskull dreams up this stuff? "I have a great idea"....