Unmasking Modern Slavery: Challenges and Complicity in Thailand

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“Slaves” is a word for a person who is legally owned by someone else and has worked for that person without compensation. The beginning of slaves took place in the late period of Sukhothai. It had been practiced throughout the Ayuthaya period and continued into the early Bangkok period. The duty of the slaves was to serve his or her owner. This essay aims to raise awareness of everyone and let them know that slavery still exists in Thailand. Also, change their way of thinking about what they have been taught in high school.

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As a student, we were taught at school that slavery was abolished since King Rama V. King Chulalongkorn was best known for his abolition of slavery. In 1900, the Employment Act stated that all workers should be paid. All the slaves in Thailand were freed so that they would not become unemployed. At the beginning of his reign, more than a quarter of the Thai population were slaves.

It continued because never-ending of descendants of slaves. They all were slaves for the rest of their lives. Traditionally children of slaves also become slaves. The fact is whether slaves abolished from the country. Maybe it has already gone, but people just change the way we call them. It is such a pity that people who are referred to as “modern-day slaves” cannot expect to be freed like those in the past.

The victims of slavery in the past were not rounded up, shamed, retained and deported to their countries of origin compared to those who are currently working as forced laborers on fishing boats or in factories.

Slavery still exists in Thailand for three main reasons including Thai culture, the role of people from other countries, and government policies. Thai culture prohibits Thailand from the release of slavery. The cycle of the culture of slavery begins in a slum near Bangkok. People hardly have jobs and often uneducated in this area. Most of the families have lived in the same hut for generations.

When they are born, one of them has to endure a terrifying burden. They are taught that it is their responsibility to provide for the family, so they can survive. These people are often forced into difficult decisions such as sell their bodies otherwise they have to watch their families suffer. It is like poverty which is the root of Thailand has stolen dreams. When working in horrific conditions, it is comprehensible why so many people are willing to do anything, even sell themselves, to help their families escape the life of hard survival. They are desperate for hope. They come to work with one desire which is to make money to help their family. There is no time to think about their demands in mind. Hopes, dreams, and passions are a part of what makes people who they are.

However, for those people, they choose to lose their names for their survival. The gaps between the rich and poor, opportunity in education in both quality and the level completed, nonequivalent in both credibility and the skills essential for a modern economy, and legal discrimination create inequality in Thailand. Rich people can choose to live their lives in the way they want. Children from wealthy families have more opportunities to enter universities and gain higher knowledge and skills. Richer Thai people have more access to superior healthcare services and live a healthier life while poor people struggle for survival. Many shreds of evidence that lead to gaps between the very wealthy, the middle class, and the lower in the society are growing wider nowadays. One of the examples in everyday life is at the shopping mall.

There is often the server and the serve which reflects two levels of society in Thailand. Inequality is not just about money but it is unethical. It crushes the basic principle that every person should have equal opportunities. Inequality is also the base cause of many fundamental problems in Thai society. Many uneducated or poor people who effect inequality make choices of their work in fishing industries. They are tricked by a false promise of “good” factory jobs, then forced into fishing boats and beaten into submission. Those people are trapped, not being paid, and sold like livestock. Moreover, they are held against their desire for months or years at a time, where they are forced to work 22 hours of days in a dangerous condition. Those who try to run away are tortured and often killed.

According to a report by the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP), who interviewed aboard Thai fishing vessels found that there is 59 percent of forced laborers who see the murder of their working colleagues. Apart from that, sometimes ship captains use electric shock treatment, sleep deprivation and drugs to keep the laborers aggressive. It is surprised to know that slavery in Thailand’s fishing industry is what the country’s GDP is built on. Seafood is one of the main exports that have prompt south-east Asian to grow. Thailand is the world’s biggest exporter of tuna and is the third biggest seafood exporter.

Considering both recent numbers from the Thai Department of Fisheries and estimates from local NGOs, it is said to have around 17,000 fishers who are considered as slaves. The Thai seafood industry in the present is well-known for being one of the most abusive and destructive economic sectors in the world. The core causes behind these abuses are intense. Thai people need to focus on the culture of clientelism and corruption in both the business community and across the lawful agencies of the state to deal with them efficiently. If people buy seafood from Thailand, they will be buying the produce of slave labor. Despite the growth of poor people, Thai culture will be continued and the country will never eradicate equality.

The cause of slavery involves the role of people from other countries. Thai people are proud of themselves. The reason behind that was because ancient Siam was the only Southeast Asian nation not to be colonized by a Western power. The result is the fundamental of Thai culture has remained the same and not influenced by foreign powers. Despite that, sometimes foreigners are treated badly, have no voices, and not seen as a country’s problem. There has been a report from the Thai government itself of severe abuses on Thai boats

where half of the fishermen were working in violation of immigration and labor laws. However, Thai did nothing and think it is none of their business because all of them are not Thai. One of the examples is a case in Pattaya, a city near Bangkok. Lieutenant-Colonel Vasu Sangsuksai, a tourist police deputy for central Thailand, reported that many overseas visitors were caught with an expired visa face fines of up to 20,000 baht. Some of them are homeless who cannot afford to pay. There are many times that Lt-Col Vasu tries to speak to the embassy. He was told that they felt very sorry but no progress has been made. People from other countries are left behind and not being protected when living in the country.

This makes slavery abolish impossible because the government does not take action and come up with laws to protect them. Indeed, Thailand’s immigration office is not strict through the foreign business community, long-term expatriates, students and retirees following the full application in recent months of burdensome immigration law date back from 1979. However, immigration officials play down problems and recite that “the law is the law”. Even some foreigners do not own Thai citizens but they do have voice and people should have pay attention to their problems. It is very easy to come to Thailand, but it is a lot harder to stay longer. Thai people should change their perception of how they have seen people from other countries.

Government policies hold Thailand from slavery abolishment. They are turning a blind eye towards the problem. Thailand is failed to find the cause of modern slavery in the country. The Thai government should have improved efforts to deal with modern slavery from seafood supply chains. This can be addressed by impulsion from international pressure to highlight Thai authorities the severity of the problem and encourage constructive and collaborative approaches. Thai seafood sector is one of the most offensive ecological and human rights abuses of recent years due to failure by the Thai Government and industry to

address at a very basic level. The government must prove its leadership and strong intention to stamp out these abuses with extensive, high-impact and compatible enforcement operations target those benefits from abuses and addressing the official corruption that surrounds this industry. People lose their freedom when the law cannot protect them or chooses not to do. Slavery in Thailand’s fishing sector grows mainly because of corruption among police and local politicians.

According to the European Union in 2015, Thailand got a “yellow card” under its illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing framework. They intimidated to ban Thai fisheries imports, if the government failed to mop up its fishing industry including labor rights. Despite a yellow card, The Thai government introduced new laws to prevent control and improve working conditions, documentation, and wages for migrant fishermen. A “port-in” and “port-out” (Pipo) system has been created to require boats to report for inspections and limit the time at the sea to 30 days.

Although the government has introduced some reforms and new laws, the ILO reported that not enough has been done. They also reported that Thailand failed to find a single case of forced labor in inspections of 474,334 fishing crews. It points to the gaps in the country’s legal framework and enforcement, in the regulation of brokers who recruit workers, the prosecution of corrupt officials, and the effective inspection of vessels. The Thai government said it had cooperated fully with the ILO investigation, and the ILO had recognized the efforts made by Thailand to get rid of forced labor in its fishing and seafood industry through its embassy in London.

However, the chair of the ITF fisheries section, Johnson Hansen, said the process has been recognized but it still has a long way to go to complete real change for the fishers trapped into forced labor. According to Steve Trent of the Environmental Justice Foundation, the Thai government addresses forced labor by putting traffickers in14-year jail sentences. He continued saying that there has been structural improve but the situation remains the same. There is an inconsistent and specific implementation of the law. Abuses continue because of corruption, rogue businesses and vessels. Moreover, the government must stop and create policies for the media to report on investigations, publishing details and photographs.

This offends the human trafficking law, even though they are willing to give permission or not. Also, there is a need to investigate and report openly on the fund for victims created under the Suppression and Prevention of human trafficking law in 2008. The government is doing too little to stop trafficking victims being forced into modern slavery. For a fourth consecutive year, the US government reported Thailand to be on its Tier 2 watch list. This shows that the Thai government has failed to meet with America’s minimum standards for eliminating trafficking and show adequate evidence of a source, destination, and transit country of people subjected to forced labor.

The report also criticized the government for failing to provide specialist services for child sex trafficking and barely protect the rights of those rescued from the trade. Corruption remains widespread among Thai law enforcement personnel which creates an enabling environment for human trafficking to thrive. The continued government failure to address corruption, prosecute and prove those engaging benefits the criminal activity.

Furthermore, in an industry that relies heavily on migrant labor, more than ninety percent of those workers are from neighboring countries. The government should create a framework that protects migrant workers both on the ground and at sea. However, Thailand has failed to achieve such a strategy and continue putting millions of workers at unnecessary risk. The government migration policy continues to be short term. The way that Thailand deals with modern slavery is anti-human. Society indeed feels pity and sympathy for the victims, but how can people translate this feeling into real justice?

The culture, mistreatment in foreigners, and the policies from the government in Thailand obstruct Thailand to completely abolished slavery. Thai culture is the result of working in Thailand’s seafood export industry which is the beginning of slaves.

The government also takes slightly action to stamp out slavery in the fishing industry. Apart from that, Thailand is failing to protect migrant workers on fishing trawlers from murder and starvation, with trafficking and forced labor still occur despite new government legislation. Rights violations are one of Thailand’s major export industries continue to grow, including forced labor and widespread human trafficking. Although the military government has taken more positive steps forward than the last, the improvement that has been made is still mainly cosmetic.

The focus should be more on ensuring those selling seafood to consumers take responsibility to guarantee supply chains are free from the right abuses. There is no doubt that widespread and very serious labor violations are continuing throughout the industry. Buyers and retailers have failed largely to play their part in finding a real solution. There are still shortcomings and little progress has been made by the government. However, if the government can successfully adjust the policies and pay more attention to slavery, people will be more confident in their commitment to improving things. One hundred and ten years ago Thailand freed the slaves. People were given freedom. Can Thailand do it again?