Thailand Faces Seafood Boycott amidst Slavery Report

Calls for a boycott of Thailand’s fish and shrimp products have grown as a new report shows child slavery and human rights violations remain common in the country’s seafood industry. An in-depth report by the Associated Press detailed working conditions in which children peel shrimp for several hours for little-to-no pay alongside adults who are held in captivity and forced to work.

Calls for a boycott of Thailand’s fish and shrimp products have grown as a new report shows child slavery and human rights violations remain common in the country’s seafood industry. An in-depth report by the Associated Press detailed working conditions in which children peel shrimp for several hours for little-to-no pay alongside adults who are held in captivity and forced to work.

“They would say, ‘There’s a gun in the boss’s car and we’re going to come and shoot you, and no one will know,’” reported one captive shrimp worker, a 22-year-old man who was trafficked to work in the industry alongside his wife on false promises of high pay and easy work. According to AP, these shrimp products originate in retail outlets in the United States and Europe, and an indeterminate amount of seafood sold in America constitutes the product of this slave labor.

Bipartisan Support

Both Republicans and Democrats are decrying the human rights violations in Thailand’s seafood industry, and have called in congress for a ban, boycott, or other kind of restriction on Thai seafood products. “All of us may find ourselves eating a slave-made product without knowing it, but once we know it, we all have a moral obligation, I believe, to make a personal decision to boycott it,” said New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith, a Republican. The position follows an earlier call for a boycott by Greenpeace, who in July pointed to Thai Union, a major seafood exporter, as a complicit profiteer on the labor of these migrants.

Thai Union CEO Thiraphong Chansiri said they have taken “a positive step towards our goal of ridding the Thai seafood sector of illegal labour practices,” although the recent AP story demonstrates little change has actually occurred. Seafood exporting is a $7 billion industry for Thailand, representing about 2 percent of the country’s GDP.

U.S. Ambassador Investigated Meanwhile, in Thailand, the American ambassador confronts a police investigation into whether he defamed the Thai monarchy. In a recent speech in Bangkok, Ambassador Glyn Davies expressed concern about long prison sentences that people faced for making Internet comments about the monarchy or the current military-run government. While analysts said this could strain relations between the U.S. and Thailand, State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a press conference that the U.S. government remains eager to maintain normal relations with the country’s junta, but stands by the ideological position Davies said in his speech.

“The US government has the utmost respect for the Thai monarchy. Ambassador Davies reiterated long-standing US policy on the issue of freedom of expression,” said Kirby. A Thai police spokesman said the ambassador is not facing criminal charges for the lese majeste investigation because of his diplomatic immunity.

In Thailand, several Thais have said the ambassador’s comments were culturally insensitive and culturally interfering. Defense of the ambassador’s speech is harder to find in Thailand, in part because people could interpret it as a criminal act.