Thailand’s rampant trafficking may carry price (slave labor)

Associated Press ^ | Jun 13, 2014 5:04 AM EDT | Margie Mason

[Olog-hai]

He was too sick to eat, and Min Min Chan’s chest ached with each breath he sucked. It didn’t matter: The Thai captain warned him to get back on deck and start hauling fish onto the trawler or be tossed overboard. As a 17-year-old slave stuck in the middle of the sea, he knew no one would come looking if he simply vanished.

Less than a month earlier, Chan had left Myanmar for neighboring Thailand, looking for work. Instead, he said a broker tricked and sold him onto the fishing boat for $616. He ended up far away in Indonesian waters before even realizing what was happening.

Tens of thousands of invisible migrants like Chan stream into Thailand, Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, every year. Many are used as forced labor in various industries, especially on long-haul fishing boats that catch seafood eaten in the U.S. and around the world. Others are dragged into the country’s booming sex industry. Ethnic Rohingya asylum seekers from neighboring Myanmar are also held for ransom in abysmal jungle camps.

Next week, when a U.S. report on human trafficking comes out, Thailand may be punished for allowing that exploitation. The country has been on a U.S. State Department human trafficking watch list for the past four years. Washington warned in last year’s report that without major improvements, it would be dropped to the lowest rung, Tier 3, joining the ranks of North Korea, Syria, Iran and Zimbabwe. …

[Olog-hai]

“May” = won’t.

[BlackVeil]

Apparently, the shrimp trade is international, and linked to this type of exploitation. I try to only buy seafood which is locally sourced.

[Mount Athos]

So horrible

[ClearCase_guy]

My cynical self says that this is just fuel for the argument that Mexicans are entitled to cross our southern border and openly get jobs in the US. It is a great evil for Mexican smugglers to traffic in "undocumented workers" and we don't want anyone who happens to be here illegally to have to work like a slave and fear arrest.

I don't think this story is about Thailand. I think it is aimed at the amnesty crowd.

[cripplecreek]

Yeah the pro amnesty crowd like to tell themselves how kind they are but then will turn right around and suggest that illegals do all the lowly labor jobs.

All of their concern is really nothing more than a desire for a controllable underclass.