:00:10. > :00:16.Fishing is big business in Thailand. Worth $7 billion a year with exports
:00:17. > :00:17.all over the world. Is it an industry built on modern day
:00:18. > :00:30.slavery? I will hear how brutal organised
:00:31. > :00:40.crime lies at the heart of a globally important trade. I said,
:00:41. > :00:47.how many of you have seen someone killed on board? In the room, half
:00:48. > :00:50.the hands went up. By the government 's tactics to deal with the problem
:00:51. > :01:04.working? How can you be certain there was no forced labour?
:01:05. > :01:17.I meet the families of losing their sons to the sea. He said he wanted a
:01:18. > :01:22.better house for his parents. The world can't get enough of Thailand's
:01:23. > :01:49.cheap fish. It is coming with a heavy human price.
:01:50. > :01:57.The port on the Gulf of Thailand. Just like the rest of the country 's
:01:58. > :02:04.fishing industry, business here is booming. Thailand is the third
:02:05. > :02:10.biggest exporter of fish on the planet. It supplies supermarkets in
:02:11. > :02:13.Europe's, America, Japan. Beneath a charming and colourful exterior is
:02:14. > :02:19.an industry which relies on human trafficking. A shortage of local
:02:20. > :02:27.labour means crew masters on fishing vessels use workers from Thailand's
:02:28. > :02:34.poorer neighbours. In many cases, they are trafficked. Bought and sold
:02:35. > :02:39.by criminal gangs and forced to work. As the sun sets, we tried to
:02:40. > :02:45.speak to some of the fishermen. As a woman, I am not allowed on board
:02:46. > :02:51.because it is unlucky. I just asked him to go and ask a bit about where
:02:52. > :02:57.they're from and how they got here and how they have in working on the
:02:58. > :03:03.boat. He spends a few minutes on board before he is asked to leave.
:03:04. > :03:14.You just came off the boat. Tommy what they said. -- tell me. He said
:03:15. > :03:20.he came with a broker who he owed money to. He is not allowed to
:03:21. > :03:29.leave, and the broker controls his salary. In three months he hasn't
:03:30. > :03:37.been paid. All the money is going to the broker. Being beholden to
:03:38. > :03:45.brokers is how they usually become enslaved. Trapped working for little
:03:46. > :03:59.or nothing for years. How did he seem? He looks unhappy. He asked for
:04:00. > :04:09.my phone number to get help. To see if I could get help. What is he
:04:10. > :04:12.worried about? Even after he pays the debt, the broker won't allow him
:04:13. > :04:26.to leave. What reinforces the sense of
:04:27. > :04:33.entrapment is that the work we spoke to, like the most on Thai fishing
:04:34. > :04:40.boats, is here illegally. Escape from a boat has the risk of arrest
:04:41. > :04:48.or being resold. One of the captains of the port speaks to me
:04:49. > :05:15.anonymously. What about workers? How hard is it to find workers?
:05:16. > :05:22.We have been here a couple of hours. We have spoken with a captain who
:05:23. > :05:27.says he needs to use force to get workers on board his boat. A worker
:05:28. > :05:41.who says he hasn't been paid for three months. A Bernd Roith fixer
:05:42. > :05:47.you don't even need to scratch the surface very much yet to uncover
:05:48. > :06:02.some very dark sides to the Thai fishing industry. The Thai capital,
:06:03. > :06:06.Bangkok. A small number of fishermen who have escaped being rescued are
:06:07. > :06:12.held in a centre on the outskirts of the city. This is the government run
:06:13. > :06:17.shelter for survivors of trafficking. I'm going to need a man
:06:18. > :06:20.who was rescued from a fishing boat. Because of law, we can't show his
:06:21. > :06:30.face. He has agreed to tell me what happened. Like many fishermen in
:06:31. > :07:17.Thailand, he came here from Myanmar with a man who tricked.
:07:18. > :07:45.At no stage was he paid for his work. In the end, the conditions
:07:46. > :08:17.became unbearable, and he took his chance to escape.
:08:18. > :08:22.Use one for six hours to try and escape? During that time were you
:08:23. > :08:40.afraid you wouldn't make it? Incredibly though, he fell back into
:08:41. > :08:45.the hands of traffickers and was forced onto another fishing boat.
:08:46. > :08:52.The second time, he was luckier. After six weeks he was rescued
:08:53. > :08:55.during a police operation. At the shelter, while he waits to be sent
:08:56. > :09:08.home, he has been learning to become a hairdresser.
:09:09. > :09:16.If jumping ship and swimming for six hours and water that you know has
:09:17. > :09:20.sharks seems like a better alternative than staying on board
:09:21. > :09:23.ship, it just tells you a little bit about how much fear and violence
:09:24. > :09:41.there is on board the boats. I want to know more about how common
:09:42. > :09:49.stories like his are. At one of Hancock 's fish markets, meeting
:09:50. > :10:00.Phil Robinson. This is freshwater fish. The fresh water market begins.
:10:01. > :10:03.Phil knows the darker side of the Thai fishing industry better than
:10:04. > :10:08.most. He works for the campaign group Human Rights Watch, and has
:10:09. > :10:13.interviewed hundreds of fishermen who have survived trafficking. What
:10:14. > :10:19.is it like to be on-board? These boats are brutal. Men who were
:10:20. > :10:26.whipped with stingray tales. People who have been beaten up. People who
:10:27. > :10:32.have seen people who couldn't work, who then stabbed thrown overboard.
:10:33. > :10:38.Does that really happen? Men are really thrown overboard? I will give
:10:39. > :10:44.you an example. I was in the deep south of Thailand. I had a group of
:10:45. > :10:49.15 migrant workers, who were about half the net and half Cambodian. I
:10:50. > :10:54.asked how many of them had seen someone killed on board. In the
:10:55. > :10:59.room, half the hands went up. It doesn't happen on every boat, but it
:11:00. > :11:05.does happen enough to raise serious concerns about the lawlessness that
:11:06. > :11:11.is taking place in the industry. According to Thai workers rights
:11:12. > :11:16.groups, this lawlessness is because some local police are reluctant to
:11:17. > :11:25.ask many questions. There are people in the police force who clearly work
:11:26. > :11:29.with migrant smugglers and brokers. They would claim they were not
:11:30. > :11:33.involved in trafficking. If you ask Bernese migrants how they got here
:11:34. > :11:37.and how they got to this port in central Thailand, there will say
:11:38. > :11:42.they were bought in a truck by a relative of a police person, or
:11:43. > :11:50.allowed to pass through by various police checkpoints. So-and-so is
:11:51. > :11:57.connected with top people. Nothing happens in Thailand that the police
:11:58. > :12:02.don't know about. I think what was so shocking about what Phil had to
:12:03. > :12:07.say it was how systematic it is. It is failure and impunity at every
:12:08. > :12:13.level that allows this industry of the selling of people to happen as
:12:14. > :12:22.part of how fishing operates in Thailand. The Thai police say they
:12:23. > :12:25.are taking the problem seriously. They have invited me to join one of
:12:26. > :12:31.their patrols to find trafficked workers at sea. The operation is
:12:32. > :12:40.happening off of Thailand's south-west coast in the Malacca
:12:41. > :12:46.Straits. Stung by recent criticism, the Thai authorities are putting on
:12:47. > :12:50.a show of strength. We are heading about ten kilometres offshore. This
:12:51. > :12:55.is where the larger fishing boats are. They have thrown a lot of
:12:56. > :13:00.resources at this. A lot of people on board this boat. The Marine
:13:01. > :13:07.police officer at the front of the boat is waving his red flag,
:13:08. > :13:12.signalling to the boats on the horizon that we are going to
:13:13. > :13:19.approach. Like those on the boats earlier, the man on these vessels
:13:20. > :13:29.are migrants. In this case, they are from .
:13:30. > :13:40.Just asking if he speaks Burmese, but they all said hello back to me.
:13:41. > :13:51.While the police pile on board, I try to grab a word with some of the
:13:52. > :13:56.crew. I just ask them if they have ever met the Thai police before.
:13:57. > :14:06.They said they hadn't. The man on the second boat is from the far
:14:07. > :14:08.west. Their crew masters control everything on the boats and are
:14:09. > :14:18.never far away. They seem reluctant to talk. They didn't know. I was
:14:19. > :14:20.trained to ask about whether they knew there would be coming in to
:14:21. > :14:25.fishing boats when they left their homes. They said they didn't. What
:14:26. > :14:29.they tell me is limited, but there are possible signs of trafficking.
:14:30. > :14:38.Not least, some of them may have been tricked into boats. I am asking
:14:39. > :14:45.how they managed to come to hear and all of them said that they came with
:14:46. > :14:50.a broker. Forced labour brokers can go hand-in-hand. Workers often end
:14:51. > :14:55.up being paid and dropped on both is precisely because these brokers
:14:56. > :15:03.claim their wages. I did try and talk to the man who working here but
:15:04. > :15:11.I just wonder how freely they would be able to say anything. I want to
:15:12. > :15:15.find out whether the police have fared any better at trying to
:15:16. > :15:20.discover the status of the men on the boats. Could I ask you, how is
:15:21. > :15:23.it that you know that these people are here against their will, how do
:15:24. > :15:52.you know that? At no stage at the 20 minute
:15:53. > :15:56.operation did we seek any of the police interview the workers. In
:15:57. > :16:00.fact, it turns out that they did not even have their own them is a
:16:01. > :16:05.speaking translator and could not talk directly to the crew. We leave
:16:06. > :16:12.the fishing boats with more questions than answers. For missions
:16:13. > :16:13.like these, would it not be easier to have your own translator with
:16:14. > :16:34.you? How can you be certain that there
:16:35. > :17:08.was no forced labour on the boats? Some of the officers from today's
:17:09. > :17:15.operation lineup for a pep talk from the general. How effective their
:17:16. > :17:20.strategy is is a pressing question. The latest US State Department
:17:21. > :17:23.report was Thailand on a so-called critical watchlist. Because of
:17:24. > :17:28.worries that not enough is being done to tackle forced labour. In the
:17:29. > :17:34.next few months, is progress is not made, America may well threaten to
:17:35. > :17:43.withdraw some of its aid to Thailand. For its part, the European
:17:44. > :17:48.Union, another of Thailand big fish by customers, as chosen to engage
:17:49. > :17:54.with Thailand to persuade them to do more to stop forced labour in the
:17:55. > :17:57.fishing industry. Back in Bangkok, I am eating and Tonio, the head of
:17:58. > :18:04.trade for the EU delegation in Thailand. As one of the largest
:18:05. > :18:08.purchases of Thai fish, you have incredible power to influence the
:18:09. > :18:12.decisions here in the industry. With the EU be prepared to blacklist
:18:13. > :18:20.Thailand if they continue to be allegations of forced labour? Your
:18:21. > :18:27.question is a very difficult one goes you are asking me to look into
:18:28. > :18:35.the future. In the study done two months ago, they were probably the
:18:36. > :18:39.most cobranded survey of the situation here. Half of the
:18:40. > :18:43.respondents said that they were OK, they were happy with their working
:18:44. > :18:51.conditions and they were happy with... But doesn't that concern
:18:52. > :18:58.you? Absolutely. But if we sanction, we also punish those who are happy.
:18:59. > :19:04.Tracing fish through the hugely complex to play chain is a
:19:05. > :19:09.nightmare. According to the government 's own figures, only
:19:10. > :19:14.10,000 of the 60,000 fishing boat at sea are actually registered. For
:19:15. > :19:22.Europeans, how much can you guarantee that that fish is slavery
:19:23. > :19:27.free? I think this is a good question because... For what -- for
:19:28. > :19:35.work there is not a very good answer. It is only through the
:19:36. > :19:39.consumers that we have been able to take a vent on the current
:19:40. > :19:47.situation. I figured if it is they that the Thailand government is not
:19:48. > :19:51.increasing its assets. The problem is growing very fast. I think the
:19:52. > :20:01.government needs to restore their force. Pressure from consumers could
:20:02. > :20:05.well bring about change. For now, the promise of work here continues
:20:06. > :20:14.to drive people into the arms of the traffickers. I am travelling to
:20:15. > :20:17.Myanmar. One of Thailand's poorest neighbours. Just an hour and a half
:20:18. > :20:18.flight from Bangkok, it is the source of much of the labour on Thai
:20:19. > :20:33.fishing boats. While there has been dramatic
:20:34. > :20:42.political change in Burma recently, much of the country remains
:20:43. > :20:47.desperately poor. The rural hinterland of Yangon is where Ken,
:20:48. > :20:52.the fishermen we met in Bangkok is from. With the help of a lake will
:20:53. > :21:02.charity worker, I am here to try and track down his parents and bring the
:21:03. > :21:07.news of their son. This woman has worked in antitrafficking in Myanmar
:21:08. > :21:14.for 12 years with the United Nations and various NGOs. We think that this
:21:15. > :21:25.is can's village. We are hoping to meet his family. Fingers crossed.
:21:26. > :21:34.Thanatpin is a tiny settlement. Finding Ken's family home does not
:21:35. > :21:39.take long. His mother and father have not heard from him since he
:21:40. > :21:44.left home four years ago. Until today, there did not know where he
:21:45. > :21:49.had gone or whether he was alive or dead. Understandably, they are keen
:21:50. > :22:04.to see the video we filmed with him in Bangkok.
:22:05. > :22:21.His mother has put his hand up to her face. They say yes this is my
:22:22. > :22:35.son. I am so happy because he is learning a skill. He has a fair
:22:36. > :22:41.complexion and is gaining weight. It is such a mix of emotions for them.
:22:42. > :22:48.You could see it in their eyes and reaction. I am so happy that he is
:22:49. > :23:03.now in a better place. He said that our living conditions
:23:04. > :23:09.and our house is very poor. I would like to have a better house for my
:23:10. > :23:20.parents. He said that and he hugged us and kissed us. We did not know
:23:21. > :23:26.where he went. His parents are not the only ones who are glad to hear
:23:27. > :23:31.that Ken is OK. There is probably about 30 people who have come in who
:23:32. > :23:37.all know Ken. They have all crowded around the computer. It just shows
:23:38. > :23:47.how many people are waiting for loved ones to come back. And how
:23:48. > :23:51.loved Ken was in this village. It is really obvious that people only been
:23:52. > :23:59.because there are no jobs here. It is a very poor village. How typical
:24:00. > :24:03.is a village like this? We hear many similar stories where people are
:24:04. > :24:11.selling off their land, their clothes and property. To find the
:24:12. > :24:18.children or the young people to emigrate to Thailand. Before we
:24:19. > :24:37.would see this story only in other states. But now, many people from
:24:38. > :24:43.central Myanmar. Yes. Perhaps there is less of a tradition of migrating.
:24:44. > :24:48.Yes. There is more risk of being trafficked and exploited for them. I
:24:49. > :24:54.had not realised that can's family had not heard from him or had any
:24:55. > :24:57.news for him in the last four years. The other thing that really strikes
:24:58. > :25:02.you is the powerful reasons that people have for leaving and
:25:03. > :25:05.sometimes ending up trapped on fishing boats. They simply want to
:25:06. > :25:13.make a better life for their families back here. The booming Thai
:25:14. > :25:18.economy continues to attract migrant workers from Myanmar and elsewhere.
:25:19. > :25:21.Growing international scrutiny has encouraged the Thai authorities to
:25:22. > :25:30.at least talk the talk on forced labour. The sheer scale of the
:25:31. > :25:32.problem corruption and the world's insatiable appetite for cheap
:25:33. > :25:34.seafood mean some of Thailand fishing boats continue to be crude
:25:35. > :26:20.by men who are forced to fish. It would be nice if we had a weekend
:26:21. > :26:23.without Rehn, this is not going to be one of them. Several weather
:26:24. > :26:27.systems coming our way this weekend. The first giving showers
:26:28. > :26:28.from the word go on Saturday morning in Scotland and Northern