Children and teenagers sit together to be registered by officials during a raid on a shrimp shed in Samut Sakhon
The president of one of the world’s biggest seafood exporters expressed frustration and promised change today after saying an Associated Press investigation (published yesterday in MDT) that linked slave-peeled shrimp to his company should be a “wake-up call” to the industry.
Thiraphong Chansiri said Thai Union will spend millions of dollars to end reliance on poorly regulated contractors that have been responsible for much of the abuse. He added that under the current system, it’s almost impossible to ensure that supply chains are clean.
Like other exporters in Thailand, his company has for years relied heavily on poor migrants working in factories in the port town of Samut Sakhon to peel, gut and devein shrimp.
The AP report revealed that many of these laborers are undocumented and can end up being tricked or sold into factories where they are forced to work 16-hour days with no time off and little or no pay for sometimes years at a time. Some end up locked inside. Others are allowed to go out, but only if they leave their children or spouse behind as a guarantee against running away.
Thiraphong said despite great efforts, Thai Union has been unable to keep labor abuses out of its supply chains. It has tried everything from spot checks by third-party auditors to regular meetings with external suppliers. But problems keep popping up.
“We realized that we could not ensure 100 percent,” he said. “Even with the whole system that we established.”
He said Thai Union will exclusively use in-house labor for shrimp processing starting Jan. 1, a change he said would cost the company about USD5 million. AP
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