Slavery at Sea: The Continued Plight of Trafficked Migrants in Thailand’s Fishing Industry
Provides recent examples of problems that have long plagued the industry in Thailand. Since the late 1980s, Thailand’s increasing prosperity and low unemployment rate have led many Thai citizens to turn away from low-paid work in the country’s more labour-intensive sectors, including construction, fishing and seafood processing. At the same time, Thailand’s comparatively underdeveloped neighbours have provided a cheap and plentiful supply of migrant labour, which has acted to discourage businesses from investing in labour-saving production processes.22 Consequently, entire sections of the Thai economy have become strongly reliant on migrant labour. Workers from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia now constitute up to 10 per cent of Thailand’s workforce, and as much as 90 per cent in the seafood industry.
