Thailand’s minister of labour, police general Adul Sangsingkeo, has briefed media on the progress of labour-related issues in both Thai fisheries and seafood processing sectors.

He reaffirmed Thailand’s commitment to combating human trafficking in a holistic manner, ranging from policy and legal reforms to implementation, redress and victim protection.

Close cooperation has also been forged with all concerned stakeholders, such as civil society organizations, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the EU and neighbouring governments, he said.

This effort has resulted in an overall improvement of the labour management in the fisheries sector, he claimed.

The Royal Thai government has emphasized the importance of effective law enforcement, and has put into place a stricter vessel inspection regime. A standard operating procedures handbook for vessel inspection has also been developed, he said.

PIPO (port in-port out) centres continue to look out for irregularity among fishing vessels coming in and departing from Thai ports, while capacity building programs for law enforcement agencies have also been intensified.

With the cooperation of the ILO, 178 labour inspectors have undergone training courses to bring them up to the latest standards. In 2017, the number of inspectors increased to approximately 1,500 officers, with a goal of increasing that number to 1,692 this year.

“More stringent law enforcement in the past two years has resulted in the prosecution of 4,240 cases of fishery-related crimes and labour law violations, out of which, 85 cases were later investigated and prosecuted for human trafficking crimes.”

The Thai authorities also aim to legalize all migrant workers, by encouraging them and their employers to undergo the proper registration process. This will allow them to be fully protected under Thai law. At present, there are approximately 3.6 million migrant workers in Thailand. Of this total number, about 2m workers entered into the workforce illegally.

However, after the ongoing process of registration, currently only 800,000 workers are still waiting to complete their nationality verification process, the minister said.

The country is in the process of drafting the “Prevention and Elimination of Forced Labor Act” to be in line with the Protocol to the Forced Labor Convention (P29), which will be a stand alone legislation, and the work in fishing law to be in line with the Work in Fishing Convention (C188).

In addition, Thailand has put into place various measures to prevent migrant workers from being exploited, he said.

Source: Under Current News