Thailand arrests 2 alleged brokers who sent slaves to boats

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Thailand arrests 2 alleged brokers who sent slaves to boats
THANYARAT DOKSONE, Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — Two Thai men described as key figures in a human trafficking ring that provides slave crews for fishing boats were arrested, officials said Wednesday, as new regulations aimed at cracking down on illegal fishing took effect.

The two suspects were the latest to be arrested following an Associated Press investigation into slavery in Southeast Asia's fishing industry.

In April, the EU gave Thailand six months to drastically combat illegal and unregulated fishing or face a seafood import ban. Thailand is a major exporter of seafood, with yearly revenues of almost 5 billion euros ($5.4 billion), and an EU ban would seriously affect the industry.

Officials from Thailand's Department of Special Investigation told a news conference the two men were "big figures" in a human trafficking syndicate in Samut Sakorn province, the country's biggest fishing hub, and had lured about 60 victims a year since 2008.

Chayuthphong Charoenporn, 50, and Samruay Chatkrod, 53, hired middlemen to find workers at train stations, bus terminals and other public places, said Lt. Col. Komvich Padhanarath.

Komvich said the middlemen would approach men who looked poor and ask them if they wanted jobs and then take them to a shelter where they were sometimes drugged or given alcohol to keep quiet — and then sold to boat owners for 30,000 baht ($900) per person. The laborers were then taken without their consent to fishing boats near Ambon island in Indonesia, he said.

"These two illegal brokers are quite big figures," said Paisith Sungkahapong, director of the human trafficking division at the DSI, which is Thailand's equivalent of the FBI. He said they admitted to human trafficking, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison or capital punishment, but denied the charges of arbitrary detention.

"They were trying to persuade people and deceive those people to work in the fishing boats," Paisith said, adding that many of the laborers didn't know they were agreeing to work on boats let alone in a foreign country. "They did not know they would be working overseas."

Also Wednesday, the Thai government's new Fisheries Act took effect. The law was drafted to improve official oversight and impose stricter measures to prevent illegal practices in the Thai fishing industry, which has come under mounting pressure from the EU.

Under the new regulations, all fishing boats are required to hold licenses, registration and legal fishing equipment and navigation systems that can be traced by authorities.

The new rules have met with resistance from fishermen who demanded that the deadline of July 1 be extended. At least 1,000 fishing trawlers in the southern province of Songkhla threatened to go on strike from Friday and asked the government to help them through the transition.

"They are now in deep trouble because if they go out, they are afraid they will be arrested. Then they will have to pay a fine of more than 100,000 baht ($30,000) or go to jail. It's too much," said Praporn Ekouru, the Songkhla Fishery Association's chairman.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha on Wednesday asked for cooperation from the fishing companies to comply with the new rules.

"If we don't pass (the EU) evaluation, will they share the responsibility of losing the products worth more than 2 billion baht that we can't sell to the entire world?" he asked, pleading with them not to strike.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-07-01

[Jay Sata]

It will be nice to see more of the big fish caught.

As for the illegal fishing boats going on strike how can they legally put to sea unregistered.

Registration and the technology can be sorted out in the days.

The problem they face is the cheap immigrants with no legal right to work and the slaves are banned so they cannot get crew.

On top of that their fishing expeditions will be monitored under the new laws to prevent illegal catches.

[halloween]

They admitted to trafficking, a life/capital crime but denied arbitrary detention. How many life sentences/executions can they award you?

[mmh8]

bring forth the goats. let us show the audience some blood that their thirst may be sated. let us begin at the top, I did read a human rights report about this, they seem to have a good few leads on where this starts and who is complicit

[Manbing]

It will be nice to see more of the big fish caught.

As for the illegal fishing boats going on strike how can they legally put to sea unregistered.

Registration and the technology can be sorted out in the days.

The problem they face is the cheap immigrants with no legal right to work and the slaves are banned so they cannot get crew.

On top of that their fishing expeditions will be monitored under the new laws to prevent illegal catches.

I fail to see how they are going to catch the big fish, with the fishing boats being under-crewed after Thailand eradicates human bondage?

Surely that was the whole point of having the slaves?

[retarius]

Finally some arrests...maybe the junta's tactic of making this an issue of illegals having no work permits will cease and we'll see more of these traffickers with long jail terms. I would like to see some boat owners in the dock as well.

Of course the problem here is that we will never here what happens to these 'big fish', the story will drop from the media and we won't know if they got off scot-free or appealed and are out on never ending appeal.

[halloween]

It will be nice to see more of the big fish caught.

As for the illegal fishing boats going on strike how can they legally put to sea unregistered.

Registration and the technology can be sorted out in the days.

The problem they face is the cheap immigrants with no legal right to work and the slaves are banned so they cannot get crew.

On top of that their fishing expeditions will be monitored under the new laws to prevent illegal catches.

I fail to see how they are going to catch the big fish, with the fishing boats being under-crewed after Thailand eradicates human bondage?

Surely that was the whole point of having the slaves?

Fewer boats = less demand for crew

[lujanit]

Two arrests is a start. I certainly hope DSI can arrest a whole lot more very soon. There are an estimated 300,000 Burmese living in Samut Sakorn. I wonder how many of those people have no WP?

[Johnny S]

"They are now in deep trouble because if they go out, they are afraid they will be arrested. Then they will have to pay a fine of more than 100,000 baht ($30,000) or go to jail. It's too much," said Praporn Ekouru, the Songkhla Fishery Association's chairman.

Where the h... do these people learn math ... ???

Meanwhile the 2 slave-traders have to find the BIG Brown envelope ...

[FangFerang]

"the two men were "big figures" in a human trafficking syndicate...and had lured about 60 victims a year since 2008". Um, there are 3,000 boats now idled. The same article said "A labor ministry spokeswoman said around 80,000 migrants were working in Thai fisheries since the deadline for compulsory migrant registrations closed Tuesday." http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=15&art_id=158591&sid=44769030&con_type=1

These two are small fish, not big fish. On scale, they are not even minnows, and more like krill. Once again, well not done!!

Edited July 2, 2015 by FangFerang

[TimmyT]

bravo, DSI! good job

[geriatrickid]

bravo, DSI! good job

Thanks for joining TVF. Hopefully, you are not banned this time around.

Unfortunately, it seems the DSI were the message boys. It is my understanding that the EU investigators did all the work and provided a list of names to the Thai government. The credit should be given to the hardworking labour and human rights investigators who risked their lives and who paid the informants.