WASHINGTON — Modern-day slavery persists around the world, including the abuse of fishermen in the Thai seafood industry whose catch can end up in U.S. markets, a congressional panel was told Wednesday.
“As has been reported for years, the Thai fishing industry is rife with forced labor, both on the high seas and within seafood processing and packing plants,” Mark Lagon, former State Department ambassador for trafficking in persons, told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee.
Lagon, who now heads Freedom House, a nonprofit organization that advocates for human rights, said it remains to be seen whether the Obama administration will impose sanctions it is authorized to deploy, which would bar Thai seafood from U.S. markets.
The State Department’s key weapon for combatting human trafficking comes in a politically charged annual ranking in “tiers”— Tier 1 is best, 2 means more could be done, and 3 is a blacklist that can spark sanctions.
The House global human rights subcommittee urged the Obama administration to come down hard on those countries that violate human rights when it releases the report in June.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., said China was prematurely upgraded to Tier 2 in 2014, and singled out Myanmar, Malaysia and Thailand as countries that need to do more to fight human trafficking across shared borders. Unless they’ve dramatically changed their law enforcement, prosecutions and investigations, several African countries face automatic downgrades this year.
Smith said the rankings spur parliamentarians, law enforcement officials and advocates globally “to demand real, measurable change in countries struggling to fight slavery.”
Matthew Smith, who directs Thailand-based Fortify Rights, a nongovernment group, testified that hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims are displaced after widespread attacks in Myanmar and are at grave risk of being trafficked.
