The U.S. State Department has downgraded Thailand to a Tier 3 trafficking nation designation, indicating the country has not done enough to curb the ongoing problems of human trafficking in a number of industries, including its seafood industry.
The department released the new designation today in its 2014 Trafficking in
“It is slavery, even in the 21st century,” said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. "There cannot be impunity for those who
Thailand has been facing pressure from NGOs such as the Environmental Justice Foundation, which has published graphic reports of poor treatment of workers on Thai fishing boats. Many of the workers are immigrants from neighboring countries, conned into getting on the boats, then forced into what some have called modern-day slavery, including beatings, physical restraint and in extreme cases, being murdered and cast overboard for resisting their captors.
Most recently, the British newspaper The Guardian published a story with the results of its investigation into the abuses, naming CP Foods, one of the largest suppliers of shrimp in the world, of using fishmeal produced by fishermen using trafficked laborers. The report led to French grocery retailer Carrefour to suspend purchases from CP.
For the past four years, the state department has labeled Thailand as “Tier 2 Watch,” which means the country has demonstrated efforts to control the problem, but without significant results. Under the department’s own rules, it was forced this year to either upgrade or downgrade Thailand.
The Tier 3 designation does not mandate further
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