Thailand is one of the world’s largest producers and global exporters of seafood, with the country’s fishing and seafood processing sectors together employing more than 600,000 workers. The sector is heavily dependent on migrant workers, with ILO estimates indicating that more than 70 percent of workers in the sector are migrants from neighbouring countries Cambodia and Myanmar.

For many such migrants working in the Thai seafood sector, the recruitment process has proven to be a source of great vulnerability to exploitation, forced labor and labor abuses. Many are deceived or coerced by employers or labor recruiters who have misled them about the nature and conditions of work, confiscated passports and other identity documents, and charged inflated recruitment fees that led to debt bondage. Other common abuses include confinement, non-payment of wages and even threats and acts of physical abuse.

The recruitment process often lacks transparency or a clear line of accountability for the actors involved to uphold worker protections. When employers use third-party labor recruiters, they risk losing control of the recruitment process, particularly if it diffuses across several agencies and agents, each fulfilling discrete roles and many charging associated fees. Informal employment and undocumented migration is also widespread in Thailand, further adding to the opacity of the recruitment process and making it more difficult to bring into compliance with international guidelines.

In recent years, mounting public pressure has triggered dramatic efforts and regulatory reforms from various industry stakeholders to redress these abuses. Nevertheless, better coordination and industry-wide engagement are necessary to enable companies to undertake responsible recruitment, monitor forced labor and human trafficking in their supply chains, and guarantee labor rights for their workers.