Slavery is illegal in every country in the world, including Thailand, but the south-east Asian nation is considered a major source, transit and destination country for human trafficking. According to the Global Slavery Index, nearly 500,000 people are believed to be currently enslaved within Thailand’s borders – and a significant number of them are likely to be out at sea.
While there are no official records of how many men are enslaved on Thai fishing boats, the Thai government estimates that up to 300,000 people work within its fishing industry, 90% of whom are migrants vulnerable to being duped, trafficked and sold to the sea.
The vast majority of these men come from neighbouring Cambodia, Laos and Burma, lured by Thailand’s strong economy and large pool of unskilled jobs. They pay brokers to help traffic them over the border and find them work in factories, on plantations or at construction sites – but many of them will be sold instead on to boats to fill a massive labour shortage in Thailand’s fishing sector.
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