Fish caught by slaves at issue
Report: Despite law, U. S. still importing illegal Thai seafood
Workers in Indonesia load fish onto a cargo ship bound for Thailand. In its first report on global trafficking 14 years ago, the U. S. named Thailand a hub for labor abuse. Yet seafood caught by slaves on Thai boats still makes it into the U. S.
WASHINGTON — Fourteen years after the U. S. first criticized Thailand for labor abuse in its annual trafficking report, seafood caught by slaves on Thai boats is still slipping into the supply chains of major American stores and supermarkets.
The U. S. has not enforced its own law banning the import of goods made with forced labor since 2000 because of significant loopholes, The Associated Press has found. It has also spared Thailand from sanctions slapped on other countries with similar records because of a complex political relationship that includes cooperation against terrorism.
The question of labor abuse in Thailand will come up at a congressional hearing Wednesday, in light of an AP investigation that found hundreds of men beaten, starved, forced to work with little or no pay and even held in a cage on the remote island village of Benjina. Although officials at federal agencies would not directly answer why the law and sanctions are not applied, they pointed out that the U. S. State Department last year blacklisted Thailand as among the worst offenders in its report.
“No one can claim ignorance anymore,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division. “This is a test case for Washington as much as Bangkok.”
Hlaing Min, an escaped migrant fisherman, begged the U. S. for help.
“Basically, we are slaves — and slavery is the only word that I can find — but our condition is worse than slavery,” he said. “On behalf of all the fishermen here, I request to the congressmen that the U. S. stop buying all fish from Thailand. … This fish, we caught it with our blood and sweat, but we don’t get a single benefit from it.”
Although U. S. seafood companies strongly condemn labor abuse, some say cutting off all imports from an entire country takes away their power to change anything. And the Thai government says it is taking steps to solve the problem, including the creation of a new registry for migrant workers and increased punishment for traffickers.
The U. S. Tariff Act of 1930 gives Customs and Border Protection the authority to seize shipments where forced labor is suspected and block further imports. However, it has been used only 39 times in 85 years. In 11 cases, the orders detaining shipments were later revoked.
The most recent case dates back to 2000, when Customs stopped clothing from a Mongolian firm. The order was revoked in 2001, after further review found labor abuse was no longer a problem at the company.
To start an investigation, Customs needs to receive a petition from anyone — a business, an agency, even a noncitizen — showing “reasonably but not conclusively” that imports were made at least in part with forced labor.
But spokesman Michael Friel said that in the past four years, Customs has received “only a handful of petitions,” and none on seafood from Thailand.