Despite Thailand having made substantive strides to address illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and associated human trafficking and forced labour abuses in recent years, a newly elected coalition government – led by the Pheu Thai party – has taken a drastically different stance towards further development of the fishing industry. Proposals put forward by the administration and – strongly supported by the commercial fishing sector – threaten many of the fisheries and labour reforms introduced since 2015. Several of these were instrumental both for the removal of the European Commission’s yellow card warning as well as US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report ranking upgrades.
The proposed rollbacks will increase the risks of IUU fishing, human trafficking and forced labour going undetected onboard fishing vessels, will compromise the rights and safety of migrant fishers and will pose a threat to marine ecosystems. If fully enacted, these changes would reduce transparency and accountability across the industry whilst severely restricting law enforcement and government agency monitoring and enforcement capabilities to detect these crimes. They would also threaten Thailand’s seafood exports valued at 172 billion baht (US$ 5.4 billion) in 2021.