Deadliest catch: Slave labour on the seas

THAILAND - Mr Win Maung (not his real name) was one of the thousands of Myanmar nationals who cross illegally into Thailand every year to find work.

Working on construction sites and fishing boats in the border province of Ranong, he earned up to 5,000 baht (S$198) a month while dodging Thai officials.

One day, he got a call. The man on the line asked if he wanted to earn 6,000 baht a month working on a construction site in the neighbouring province of Surat Thani.

Yes, he said.

After an overnight car ride with five other illegals, he arrived at the compound of an old warehouse, and was promptly surrounded by 10 people, some with guns.

In the pre-dawn confusion, this much was clear: They were not on a building site, nor in Surat Thani. They were marched onto a waiting fishing trawler, which promptly set off to sea.

It would be another three years before Mr Win Maung, 29, would see land again.

Thailand was the world's third-largest exporter of fish and fishery products in 2010, the latest ranking available. Exports last year crossed 240 billion baht (S$9.5 billion), of which Singapore imported more than S$80 million worth.

Over the years, however, faced with a shrinking pool of manual labourers, Thailand's seafood industry has increasingly depended on migrants to shell prawns, process seafood products and man fishing trawlers out in the open sea.

Thai fishing trawlers ply the Andaman Sea and Gulf of Thailand, and also venture into international waters. But the isolation, relentless pace and harsh conditions on these boats have meant that even Cambodians and Myanmar nationals are increasingly shunning such jobs, creating demand for forced labour.

According to Sunday Times interviews and reports by the international aid agencies, the trafficked fishermen typically spend months or even years out at sea, and are paid little or nothing for their labour.

Abuse and the threats of abuse are common.

Survivors claimed to have seen fellow workers murdered if they tried to escape. Many also allege official collusion.

The International Labour Organisation, in a recent study, found that 5 per cent of fishing boat workers surveyed were unable to leave their jobs because they were threatened with violence or having their illegal status revealed to the authorities, or had their belongings withheld.

The United States, in its 2013 Trafficking in Persons report, gave Thailand the second-lowest grade for the fourth year running.

To escape a downgrade to the bottom tier, Thailand promised to do better, including opening labour coordination centres in the seven coastal provinces of Samut Sakhon, Trat, Rayong, Chumphon, Songkhla, Ranong and Satun, to keep track of those getting on and off these trawlers.

"In theory, it's a good idea," says Ms Saranya Chittangwong, the Ranong-based field coordinator for aid agency International Organisation for Migration.

"In practice, it's not easy to trace, because migrants can always get documents from brokers."

But almost one year after the Thai Cabinet gave the green light to these labour coordination centres, there is still not one in Ranong, a major transit point for Myanmar nationals.

Mr Win Duangkae, a technical officer in Ranong province's employment office, told The Sunday Times during a visit in the middle of last month that he had not received the budget to start operations.

Another hurdle is the sheer scale of migration.

Thailand hosts an estimated two million to three million migrant workers, mostly from Myanmar.

The director of aid group Foundation for Education and Development (FED), Ms Po Po, estimates that 500 Myanmar nationals enter Thailand both legally and illegally every day at each of the major border crossings like Mae Sot up north as well as Sangkhlaburi and Ranong.

Of late, she adds, Myanmar nationals entering Thailand from the north are heading south in search of higher-paying jobs in the tourism sector. Some get picked off by human traffickers for Thai fishing boats.

According to Royal Thai Police, there were 594 human trafficking victims last year.

Of those, 429 were forced into prostitution, 108 were made to beg, while another 57 cases were classified as forced labour.

"The situation is getting worse," says Mr Kyaw Thaung, director of the Myanmar Association in Thailand. Last year, he helped free 166 Myanmar fishermen, and has helped save more than 180 so far this year.

For Mr Win Maung, who was marooned at sea with five other Myanmar men, the situation seemed hopeless.

They were never beaten, he tells The Sunday Times, but the Thai skipper and his two assistants were armed at all times and threatened to "punish" them if they did not work. They took it to mean they would be killed.

They did not try to escape - partly because they did not know where they were, and also partly because they feared being shot and fed to the fishes.

They survived on about three hours of sleep most days, hauling nets and sorting fish, rain or shine.

One desperate co-worker swallowed an entire pack of paracetamol tablets. "He could not wake up for three days, but he did not die."

Out on the vast ocean, Mr Win Muang saw "hundreds" of fishing trawlers, similarly filled with men who had been forced to work.

He knows this, he says, because the Myanmar workers on different boats would talk to one another via marine VHF radio while they were on night watch - and their Thai skippers were asleep.

Fishing industry leaders like Su-rintr Losong say that reports of trafficking are overblown.

The president of the Fisheries Association of Ranong says workers are sometimes unhappy about the pay they get and want to leave their jobs even though they are out at sea. At this point, it becomes classified as "forced labour", he says.

Meanwhile, rampant job hopping deters Thai employers from applying for proper documents for their migrant staff, which would protect them from exploitation. Ms Saranya says: "When workers hear of somewhere that pays better, they just leave, so the employers are not really happy."

Still, the Thai authorities admit that reported cases are probably a fraction of the real number.

Royal Thai Police adviser Chatchawal Suksomjit, who oversees its anti-human trafficking unit, says that convictions are hard to nail down. Victims do not stay long enough to give evidence.

A month ago, Thai police arrested a Myanmar suspect alleged to have sold hundreds of his countrymen into slavery.

But there is little incentive for victims to go to the police. Most fear reprisals from well-connected boat owners. Nor do they want to wait months or even years to give evidence - during which they are unable to work.

Mr Win Maung was rescued by the FED early last month when engine trouble forced his trawler to come to shore. Having not been paid for three years, he has no savings and is not about to head home.

"I want to forget about the experience of the past three years," he says quietly. "I want to stay and work in Thailand."

tanhy@sph.com.sg

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