Raise Awareness about Exploitation of Fisherman

1405

Community

Bangkok

14,895 THB / 25,000 THB

Raised by 5 persons in 1022 days

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Created on July 06 2021

By Amp Kangsumrith

The Story

34 months ago

There are very few people who know about the exploitation of slavery in Thailand People consume fish for the sake of nutrition and taste. People know that eating vegan is very healthy, but little did they know that they are saving approximately 800,000 exploited fishermen. I am currently a high school student who is very passionate about tackling human rights in the fishing industry.

Human trafficking of workers is not only taking away the rights of individuals to choose their own path and make decisions based on their needs, but we are also taking advantage of other people’s weaknesses whether it is their financial status or skin color. Laborers in the fishing industries are required to work at least 20 hours a day with little pay, physical abuse, and threats of violence on the boats and in port. They are forced to be out of the sea for at least 5 months and if they neglect their work, they will be beaten and thrown overboard. Illegal fishing tends to deplete fish near the shore, forcing fishermen to travel further in longer distances to catch. This results in higher costs for fuel and labor, but most importantly it is more convenient to engage in labor abuses. Legally, workers usually get paid “overtime”, but there is no such thing if they work for 20+ hours. Without law and legislation, labor costs are the easiest factor to cut out from the whole production chain, creating an incentive for modern slavery. Therefore, this form of action is undoubtedly unacceptable and needs to be immediately addressed to the whole country.

One of the testimonies is a Burmese slave who moved to Thailand because his friend encourages him to work at a construction site. This was his opportunity to increase his working wage because he has siblings to take care of. However, when he arrived, he had to stay in a fishery port and was told that he was sold for 16,000 baht to work in at seas

The money raised on this platform will be donated to different organizations that currently have projects dedicated to tackling this issue, one of which is Oxfam and LPN in Thailand.