Photo courtesy of Daniel Murphy for Human Rights Watch 

On behalf of the Seafood Working Group (SWG), Global Labor Justice (GLJ) makes the following submission to the U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP Office) for its 2024 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report on Thailand.

The SWG and GLJ have significant experience and expertise regarding the problem of forced labor among the migrant worker population in Thailand — a form of trafficking in persons under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, as amended (TVPA). For a decade, GLJ has submitted annual Comments Concerning the Ranking of Thailand by the U.S. Department of State in the Trafficking in Persons Report (hereinafter “SWG Comments on Thailand”) on behalf of the SWG.

The SWG is submitting this year’s Comments to demonstrate the continued inefficacy of the Government of Thailand’s efforts to address forced labor, particularly among the migrant worker population working in the country’s lucrative seafood industry. The government’s efforts remain largely unsuccessful to date because its anti-trafficking approach has continued not to prioritize upholding migrant workers’ fundamental labor rights, particularly the freedom of association and right to collective bargaining, which are critical to addressing the root causes of forced labor. 

Echoing the Biden Administration’s Memorandum on Advancing Worker Empowerment, Rights, and High Labor Standards Globally, the SWG aims to highlight the importance of advancing worker empowerment and organizing as a means to reduce the risk of forced labor in Thailand’s seafood industry. This comes at a moment where governments, international brands and retailers, and consumers around the world are paying renewed attention to the risk of forced labor in the fishing and seafood processing sectors, in light of increased reporting exposing the prevalence of labor abuses and illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in global seafood supply chains.

Based on the evidence in this submission, the SWG recommends that the U.S. Department of State place Thailand on the Tier 2 Watchlist in 2024. During the reporting period, April 1, 2023–March 31, 2024, the Government of Thailand did not fully comply with the TVPA minimum standards despite significant efforts to do so, having not made “serious and sustained efforts” to eliminate severe forms of trafficking in persons, particularly in the seafood industry, even though it remains high-risk for forced labor. While the estimated number of workers subjected to forced labor in Thailand’s seafood industry remains significant (see Section 1.1), the government has not taken proportional concrete actions to mitigate the risk of forced labor among the predominantly migrant workforce. Furthermore, the government has not shown evidence of increasing efforts to combat forced labor in the seafood industry from the previous year. Instead, many of the same issues highlighted in previous SWG Comments on Thailand have persisted during this reporting period, and the Government of Thailand has not adopted many of the TIP Office’s Prioritized Recommendations listed in the 2023 TIP Report on Thailand. 

These Comments, which are organized under the “3Ps” — Prevention, Protection, and Prosecution — provide evidence of the following during the reporting period: 

• Prevention: The Government of Thailand has not made meaningful progress to ensure migrant workers’ right to freedom of association, which is critical to preventing and addressing forced labor in Thailand’s seafood industry. The government has continued to legally exclude migrant workers from union rights by not ratifying the International Labour Organization (ILO) Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention, 1948 (No. 87) (“C87”) or the ILO Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) (“C98”), as well as by failing to amend Thailand’s Labor Relations Act, B.E. 2518 (1975) to legally grant migrant workers the right to form and lead unions. Meanwhile, welfare committees in seafood processing factories have not provided an alternative space for genuine worker organizing and representation among workers. These significant barriers to freedom of association have impeded migrant workers from reporting abuses in the workplace. Furthermore, five years after ratification, Thailand has not advanced its implementation of the ILO Work in Fishing Convention, 2007 (No. 188) (“C188”), which is critical to creating an enabling environment to prevent forced labor in the fishing industry. The government continues not to enforce the Labor Protection in Fishing Work Act, B.E. 2562 (2019) — originally passed to ensure compliance with C188 — and is in the process of relaxing laws in the fishing industry, at the cost of increasing fishers’ risk of forced labor. Lastly, the government has continued to unsuccessfully manage migration flows from neighboring countries into Thailand and hold employers, brokers, and recruitment agencies accountable for deceptive recruitment practices.

• Protection: The Government of Thailand has hindered the identification of survivors of forced labor in the seafood industry — the majority of whom are migrant workers — by not strengthening labor inspections of fishing vessels and seafood processing factories, nor addressing the undue influence of vessel or factory owners on government officials, whose actions may amount to collusion. In addition, Thailand’s National Referral Mechanism (NRM) has still not proven to be an effective mechanism for screening and identifying survivors of forced labor, especially among migrant workers in the seafood industry, nor for providing adequate protection for survivors. Meanwhile, the government has failed to protect Thai fishers subjected to forced labor abroad from being recruited to work another vessel with conditions of forced labor. Lastly, the government has failed to protect service providers from intimidation and harassment, which has impacted the delivery of essential protection services to survivors.

• Prosecution: The Government of Thailand has impeded the successful prosecution of forced labor cases in the seafood industry by prescribing informal mediation and settlement of cases involving indicators of forced labor to avoid prosecution proceedings. In addition, Thai courts have demonstrated a limited understanding of forced labor in failing to convict perpetrators under Section 6/1 of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, B.E. 2551 (2008) even where there is strong evidence of forced labor.

In light of these shortcomings in the government’s efforts, the SWG recommends that the Government of Thailand adopt the following laws and policies:

1. Respect migrant workers’ freedom of association and right to collective bargaining; 
2. Effectively implement C188 through revision and enforcement of laws designed to protect fishers’ rights;
3. Ensure the fair recruitment of migrant workers living abroad and in Thailand;
4. Strengthen labor inspections of migrant-dominated workplaces;
5. Improve implementation of the NRM across all provinces;
6. Protect Thai fishers who are subjected to forced labor overseas;
7. Protect service providers from intimidation and harassment, and
8. Create an enabling environment for the fair prosecution of forced labor cases.