Myanmar fishermen long for justice as Thailand’s multi billion-dollar seafood sector comes under U.N. scrutiny

Sold to a boat operator in Thailand for 6,000 baht ($192) two years ago, Win from Myanmar worked as a fisherman until he lost his forearm in an accident on the vessel this year.

Toiling for 19 hours a day, Win said the crew of 30 sometimes would not get any rest during peak season, with a United Nations team in Thailand this week to investigate such reports of abusive working conditions.

“Life is difficult as a fisherman in Myanmar so I thought it would make my life better if I come and work in Thailand,” the father of four, 39, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“The ‘agent’ did not tell me what work I was going to do or how much I would be paid. I just ended up working on the boat.”

The world’s third largest seafood exporter, Thailand’s fishing industry employs more than 300,000 people, many of them migrant workers from neighboring countries, and the sector has long been dogged by allegations of abuses.

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