Fish industry exploits refugees: Southeast Asia must ensure better protection for Rohingya refugees

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) calls for more international efforts in the struggle to curb human trafficking in Southeast Asia. “It is especially the Rohingya refugees from Burma/Myanmar who are being exploited as slaves on fishing trawlers and in plantations. As stateless persons, they are defenseless against the unscrupulous traffickers, the corrupt officials and soldiers,” said Ulrich Delius, the STP’s Asia-consultant, in Göttingen on Tuesday. “German supermarket chains must stop selling canned fish and dog or cat food containing fish that was caught by enslaved refugees in Southeast Asia,” the human rights organization demanded in a note to the major grocery chains and discount stores in Germany.

On Monday, the US State Department published its annual report about the global struggle against human trafficking – criticizing the lack of protection for the Muslim minority group that is persecuted in Burma and mostly ignored throughout Southeast Asia. Thailand, one of Burma’s neighboring countries, was once again rebuked sharply. Many refugees and migrants from Burma, Laos and Cambodia are being forced to work in the Thai fishing industry.

When the EU announced plans to stop importing fish from Thailand in April 2015, the Southeast Asian country emphasized its willingness to fight human trafficking, and some measures to stop slavery on fishing trawlers were taken. Fishing boats were inspected and many fishermen lost their license. In addition, there were arrests of traffickers who are accused of having sold Rohingya refugees as slaves. However, some of the freed Rohingya refugees reported that compatriots whose relatives were unable to pay a ransom were sold as slaves to work on fishing cutters.

“So far, Thailand’s measures against human trafficking are not much more than demonstrative gestures to try and calm down the EU,” said Delius. “The local authorities are far from a comprehensive, coordinated approach. The promises must be followed by actions – especially concerning the measures to fight corruption.”

Thailand is the third largest fish producer in the world, with a revenue of more than seven billion Euros every year. The country’s annual fish-exports to the EU, which are mostly used for the production of animal food, are worth more than one billion Euros.

Header Photo: Flickr/European Commission DG ECHO