Thailand's Slave Fishermen Our World

Fishing is big business in Thailand. Worth $7 billion a year with exports

all over the world. Is it an industry built on modern day

slavery? I will hear how brutal organised

crime lies at the heart of a globally important trade. I said,

how many of you have seen someone killed on board? In the room, half

the hands went up. By the government 's tactics to deal with the problem

working? How can you be certain there was no forced labour?

I meet the families of losing their sons to the sea. He said he wanted a

better house for his parents. The world can't get enough of Thailand's

cheap fish. It is coming with a heavy human price.

The port on the Gulf of Thailand. Just like the rest of the country 's

fishing industry, business here is booming. Thailand is the third

biggest exporter of fish on the planet. It supplies supermarkets in

Europe's, America, Japan. Beneath a charming and colourful exterior is

an industry which relies on human trafficking. A shortage of local

labour means crew masters on fishing vessels use workers from Thailand's

poorer neighbours. In many cases, they are trafficked. Bought and sold

by criminal gangs and forced to work. As the sun sets, we tried to

speak to some of the fishermen. As a woman, I am not allowed on board

because it is unlucky. I just asked him to go and ask a bit about where

they're from and how they got here and how they have in working on the

boat. He spends a few minutes on board before he is asked to leave.

You just came off the boat. Tommy what they said. -- tell me. He said

he came with a broker who he owed money to. He is not allowed to

leave, and the broker controls his salary. In three months he hasn't

been paid. All the money is going to the broker. Being beholden to

brokers is how they usually become enslaved. Trapped working for little

or nothing for years. How did he seem? He looks unhappy. He asked for

my phone number to get help. To see if I could get help. What is he

worried about? Even after he pays the debt, the broker won't allow him

to leave. What reinforces the sense of

entrapment is that the work we spoke to, like the most on Thai fishing

boats, is here illegally. Escape from a boat has the risk of arrest

or being resold. One of the captains of the port speaks to me

anonymously. What about workers? How hard is it to find workers?

We have been here a couple of hours. We have spoken with a captain who

says he needs to use force to get workers on board his boat. A worker

who says he hasn't been paid for three months. A Bernd Roith fixer

you don't even need to scratch the surface very much yet to uncover

some very dark sides to the Thai fishing industry. The Thai capital,

Bangkok. A small number of fishermen who have escaped being rescued are

held in a centre on the outskirts of the city. This is the government run

shelter for survivors of trafficking. I'm going to need a man

who was rescued from a fishing boat. Because of law, we can't show his

face. He has agreed to tell me what happened. Like many fishermen in

Thailand, he came here from Myanmar with a man who tricked.

At no stage was he paid for his work. In the end, the conditions

became unbearable, and he took his chance to escape.

Use one for six hours to try and escape? During that time were you

afraid you wouldn't make it? Incredibly though, he fell back into

the hands of traffickers and was forced onto another fishing boat.

The second time, he was luckier. After six weeks he was rescued

during a police operation. At the shelter, while he waits to be sent

home, he has been learning to become a hairdresser.

If jumping ship and swimming for six hours and water that you know has

sharks seems like a better alternative than staying on board

ship, it just tells you a little bit about how much fear and violence

there is on board the boats. I want to know more about how common

stories like his are. At one of Hancock 's fish markets, meeting

Phil Robinson. This is freshwater fish. The fresh water market begins.

Phil knows the darker side of the Thai fishing industry better than

most. He works for the campaign group Human Rights Watch, and has

interviewed hundreds of fishermen who have survived trafficking. What

is it like to be on-board? These boats are brutal. Men who were

whipped with stingray tales. People who have been beaten up. People who

have seen people who couldn't work, who then stabbed thrown overboard.

Does that really happen? Men are really thrown overboard? I will give

you an example. I was in the deep south of Thailand. I had a group of

15 migrant workers, who were about half the net and half Cambodian. I

asked how many of them had seen someone killed on board. In the

room, half the hands went up. It doesn't happen on every boat, but it

does happen enough to raise serious concerns about the lawlessness that

is taking place in the industry. According to Thai workers rights

groups, this lawlessness is because some local police are reluctant to

ask many questions. There are people in the police force who clearly work

with migrant smugglers and brokers. They would claim they were not

involved in trafficking. If you ask Bernese migrants how they got here

and how they got to this port in central Thailand, there will say

they were bought in a truck by a relative of a police person, or

allowed to pass through by various police checkpoints. So-and-so is

connected with top people. Nothing happens in Thailand that the police

don't know about. I think what was so shocking about what Phil had to

say it was how systematic it is. It is failure and impunity at every

level that allows this industry of the selling of people to happen as

part of how fishing operates in Thailand. The Thai police say they

are taking the problem seriously. They have invited me to join one of

their patrols to find trafficked workers at sea. The operation is

happening off of Thailand's south-west coast in the Malacca

Straits. Stung by recent criticism, the Thai authorities are putting on

a show of strength. We are heading about ten kilometres offshore. This

is where the larger fishing boats are. They have thrown a lot of

resources at this. A lot of people on board this boat. The Marine

police officer at the front of the boat is waving his red flag,

signalling to the boats on the horizon that we are going to

approach. Like those on the boats earlier, the man on these vessels

are migrants. In this case, they are from .

Just asking if he speaks Burmese, but they all said hello back to me.

While the police pile on board, I try to grab a word with some of the

crew. I just ask them if they have ever met the Thai police before.

They said they hadn't. The man on the second boat is from the far

west. Their crew masters control everything on the boats and are

never far away. They seem reluctant to talk. They didn't know. I was

trained to ask about whether they knew there would be coming in to

fishing boats when they left their homes. They said they didn't. What

they tell me is limited, but there are possible signs of trafficking.

Not least, some of them may have been tricked into boats. I am asking

how they managed to come to hear and all of them said that they came with

a broker. Forced labour brokers can go hand-in-hand. Workers often end

up being paid and dropped on both is precisely because these brokers

claim their wages. I did try and talk to the man who working here but

I just wonder how freely they would be able to say anything. I want to

find out whether the police have fared any better at trying to

discover the status of the men on the boats. Could I ask you, how is

it that you know that these people are here against their will, how do

you know that? At no stage at the 20 minute

operation did we seek any of the police interview the workers. In

fact, it turns out that they did not even have their own them is a

speaking translator and could not talk directly to the crew. We leave

the fishing boats with more questions than answers. For missions

like these, would it not be easier to have your own translator with

you? How can you be certain that there

was no forced labour on the boats? Some of the officers from today's

operation lineup for a pep talk from the general. How effective their

strategy is is a pressing question. The latest US State Department

report was Thailand on a so-called critical watchlist. Because of

worries that not enough is being done to tackle forced labour. In the

next few months, is progress is not made, America may well threaten to

withdraw some of its aid to Thailand. For its part, the European

Union, another of Thailand big fish by customers, as chosen to engage

with Thailand to persuade them to do more to stop forced labour in the

fishing industry. Back in Bangkok, I am eating and Tonio, the head of

trade for the EU delegation in Thailand. As one of the largest

purchases of Thai fish, you have incredible power to influence the

decisions here in the industry. With the EU be prepared to blacklist

Thailand if they continue to be allegations of forced labour? Your

question is a very difficult one goes you are asking me to look into

the future. In the study done two months ago, they were probably the

most cobranded survey of the situation here. Half of the

respondents said that they were OK, they were happy with their working

conditions and they were happy with... But doesn't that concern

you? Absolutely. But if we sanction, we also punish those who are happy.

Tracing fish through the hugely complex to play chain is a

nightmare. According to the government 's own figures, only

10,000 of the 60,000 fishing boat at sea are actually registered. For

Europeans, how much can you guarantee that that fish is slavery

free? I think this is a good question because... For what -- for

work there is not a very good answer. It is only through the

consumers that we have been able to take a vent on the current

situation. I figured if it is they that the Thailand government is not

increasing its assets. The problem is growing very fast. I think the

government needs to restore their force. Pressure from consumers could

well bring about change. For now, the promise of work here continues

to drive people into the arms of the traffickers. I am travelling to

Myanmar. One of Thailand's poorest neighbours. Just an hour and a half

flight from Bangkok, it is the source of much of the labour on Thai

fishing boats. While there has been dramatic

political change in Burma recently, much of the country remains

desperately poor. The rural hinterland of Yangon is where Ken,

the fishermen we met in Bangkok is from. With the help of a lake will

charity worker, I am here to try and track down his parents and bring the

news of their son. This woman has worked in antitrafficking in Myanmar

for 12 years with the United Nations and various NGOs. We think that this

is can's village. We are hoping to meet his family. Fingers crossed.

Thanatpin is a tiny settlement. Finding Ken's family home does not

take long. His mother and father have not heard from him since he

left home four years ago. Until today, there did not know where he

had gone or whether he was alive or dead. Understandably, they are keen

to see the video we filmed with him in Bangkok.

His mother has put his hand up to her face. They say yes this is my

son. I am so happy because he is learning a skill. He has a fair

complexion and is gaining weight. It is such a mix of emotions for them.

You could see it in their eyes and reaction. I am so happy that he is

now in a better place. He said that our living conditions

and our house is very poor. I would like to have a better house for my

parents. He said that and he hugged us and kissed us. We did not know

where he went. His parents are not the only ones who are glad to hear

that Ken is OK. There is probably about 30 people who have come in who

all know Ken. They have all crowded around the computer. It just shows

how many people are waiting for loved ones to come back. And how

loved Ken was in this village. It is really obvious that people only been

because there are no jobs here. It is a very poor village. How typical

is a village like this? We hear many similar stories where people are

selling off their land, their clothes and property. To find the

children or the young people to emigrate to Thailand. Before we

would see this story only in other states. But now, many people from

central Myanmar. Yes. Perhaps there is less of a tradition of migrating.

Yes. There is more risk of being trafficked and exploited for them. I

had not realised that can's family had not heard from him or had any

news for him in the last four years. The other thing that really strikes

you is the powerful reasons that people have for leaving and

sometimes ending up trapped on fishing boats. They simply want to

make a better life for their families back here. The booming Thai

economy continues to attract migrant workers from Myanmar and elsewhere.

Growing international scrutiny has encouraged the Thai authorities to

at least talk the talk on forced labour. The sheer scale of the

problem corruption and the world's insatiable appetite for cheap

seafood mean some of Thailand fishing boats continue to be crude

by men who are forced to fish. It would be nice if we had a weekend

without Rehn, this is not going to be one of them. Several weather

systems coming our way this weekend. The first giving showers

from the word go on Saturday morning in Scotland and Northern