Every morning at 2am, they heard a kick on the door and a threat: get up or get beaten. For the next 16 hours, No 31 and his wife stood in the factory with their aching hands in ice water. They ripped the guts, heads, tails and shells off shrimp bound for overseas markets, including grocery stores and all-you-can-eat buffets across the US.
After being sold to the Gig Peeling Factory, the couple were at the mercy of their Thai bosses, trapped with nearly 100 other Burmese migrants. Children worked alongside them, including a girl so tiny she had to stand on a stool to reach the peeling table. Some had been there for months, even years, getting little or no pay. At all times, someone was watching.
Names were never used, only numbers given by their boss. Tin Nyo Win was No 31.
Pervasive human trafficking has helped turn Thailand into one of the world’s biggest shrimp providers. Despite repeated promises by businesses and government to clean up the country’s £4.6bn seafood export industry, an Associated Press (AP) investigation has found that shrimp peeled by modern-day slaves is reaching the US, Europe and Asia.
The problem is fuelled by corruption and complicity among police and authorities, and arrests and prosecutions are rare. Raids can end up sending migrants without proper paperwork to jail, while owners go unpunished. Full story...
Related posts:
After being sold to the Gig Peeling Factory, the couple were at the mercy of their Thai bosses, trapped with nearly 100 other Burmese migrants. Children worked alongside them, including a girl so tiny she had to stand on a stool to reach the peeling table. Some had been there for months, even years, getting little or no pay. At all times, someone was watching.
Names were never used, only numbers given by their boss. Tin Nyo Win was No 31.
Pervasive human trafficking has helped turn Thailand into one of the world’s biggest shrimp providers. Despite repeated promises by businesses and government to clean up the country’s £4.6bn seafood export industry, an Associated Press (AP) investigation has found that shrimp peeled by modern-day slaves is reaching the US, Europe and Asia.
The problem is fuelled by corruption and complicity among police and authorities, and arrests and prosecutions are rare. Raids can end up sending migrants without proper paperwork to jail, while owners go unpunished. Full story...
Related posts:
- Nestlé admits slavery and coercion used in catching its seafood...
- Revealed: how the Thai fishing industry trafficks, imprisons and enslaves...
- Revealed: Asian slave labour producing prawns for supermarkets in US, UK...
- Locked in cages and whipped with toxic stingray tails: The Burmese slaves...
- Why slavery is here to stay...
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