Seafood from Thailand is facing a possible ban by the European Union. The EU is investigating claims of illegal fishing and the use of unregistered workers. It's about to decide whether Thailand has made enough progress to avoid sanctions.
It’s a difficult time for Thailand’s seafood industry. It’s the world’s third largest exporter, but its fishing practices have been called into question. The European Union is concerned that rules on licensing, net sizes, where the fish are caught and the safety of workers have been only-loosely enforced. It’s about to rule on whether to ban Thai products, a move which would cost the country 740 million US dollars a year in lost sales.
"Fishing is not easy. We have done everything we can to meet the new regulations. I think we have done more than enough. We have documents for all our workers and if they are under 18 we won’t hire them," Fishing boat owner Pattaya Salakij said.
The fishing industry accepts the need for reform, but isn’t happy with some of the new regulations.
"They design the fishing days for trawling that they have to stop fishing five days every month, for surface fishing they have to stop nine days a month. They fix by the day but going out fishing you have to depend on the weather, the season of the fish, not depend on the calendar," Wicharn Sirichai-Ekawat, ex-chair of National Fisheries Association of Thailand, said.
This man – a victim of human trafficking – claimed in 2014 he’d been imprisoned on a Thai fishing boat for two years, working seven days a week for minimal wages.
"Life was very difficult on the boat, the work was very hard. If I made the smallest mistake, even dropping one fish, they would cut my pay. If people didn’t obey, they were beaten," Fishman Tongmit said.
The EU has a soccer-style red and yellow card system. It gave Thailand a yellow card final warning in April, giving it six months to bring fishing up to international standards.
Thailand’s fishing industry is facing 3 possible outcomes. 1, the yellow card is withdrawn if the EU is satisfied with the measures being taken; 2, the yellow card’s extended for a further 6 months to give the industry more time – or 3, it’s replaced by a damning red card … banning all Thai fishing products from EU markets.
The EU’s verdict will be crucial to Thailand’s fishing industry and national economy.