Decades of overfishing and the international demand for cheap seafood mean Thai boats are increasingly turning to slave labor as fishermen flee worsening working conditions, a rights group said on Wednesday, according to NBC News.
Thai waters are one of the world's most
over-fished regions, and Thai boats now catch just 14 percent of what they
caught in the mid-1960s, according to the London-based Environment Justice
Foundation.
To remain profitable, boats are forced to
stay at sea for longer and go further afield than ever before.
Some unregistered ‘pirate’ boats are
fishing the waters of other countries, also fueling demand for modern-day
slaves, the EJF said in a report. As workers flee appalling conditions aboard
the boats, catches decline and costs rise, vessel operators have resorted to
using trafficked, bonded and forced labor to fill the shortfall and man their
fishing boats, the EJF said.
"Producers and consumers of Thai
seafood are embroiled in one of the most outrageous social and ecological
crimes of the 21st century," EJF executive director Steve Trent said in a
statement.
"Ecosystem decline and slavery exist
in a vicious cycle," he added. Thailand is the third largest seafood
exporter in the world, with exports valued at US$7 billion in 2013, EJF said.
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