Thailand's fishing industry 'puts children at risk', report says

LONDON: -- Children in Thailand's seafood processing industry are more exposed to workplace hazards and twice as likely to sustain injuries, a report has said.

More children in the seafood industry worked with fire, gas or flames compared to other industries, it said.

The report by the ILO and the Asia Foundation said 19.4% of children in those industries reported workplace injuries compared to 8.4% in others.

Rights group have accused the Thai seafood industry of using slave labour.

Human Rights Watch said in a report that fishermen from Cambodia and Myanmar (also known as Burma) are trafficked and forced to work on the boats. Their children make up most of the child population working in the industry.

Thailand is the world's third-largest seafood exporter globally.

Full story: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34242102


-- BBC 2015-09-14

Not for long.

This is the second round of class action lawsuits in the US over the Thai seafood industry. The first round was recently filed against Nestle for using slave labor in cat food products. There will be more filed for seafood products sold for human consumption. The more recent "gathering" is for exploitation of child labor in harvesting seafood products in Thailand. In the 80's and 90's, several apparel and footwear manufacturers had class action lawsuits filed against them for using child labor. Although some of those actions were dismissed, all of them ultimately resulted in settlements in the range of $15-20 million. Nike and Adidas moved their operations out of Thailand and engaged in a PR campaign to quell the outcry over their labor practices. Most of the exploitation now occurs in Indonesia and Vietnam where there is less opportunity for public and NGO oversight.

No coincidence that the major australian supermarkets started dumping Thai fishing products at knock-down prices about 18 months ago. But as the French tv doco showed, Thai involvement is often hidden and when you buy something believing it to be the product of one country, the beneficial ownership can be traced back to another

Another carefully-timed release by another one of Thailand's non-friends. Of whom there are many. There will be more.

No coincidence that the major australian supermarkets started dumping Thai fishing products at knock-down prices about 18 months ago. But as the French tv doco showed, Thai involvement is often hidden and when you buy something believing it to be the product of one country, the beneficial ownership can be traced back to another

Take a look at canned fish in ALDI in Australia - most is from Thailand. I make sure I don't shop there.

ALDI is currently a small player, less than 15%, but it's on the rise.