Cambodians return home after years of slavery aboard Thai fishing boats



By Coconuts Bangkok June 19, 2015

More than 200 Cambodian fishermen rescued from “slave-like conditions” on Thai fishing boats in Indonesian waters returned home yesterday, some after years of captivity, officials and victims said.

Some 230 fishermen who were trafficked to work on Thai fishing vessels in Indonesian waters have been rescued since May, according to a statement from the Cambodian foreign ministry.

All but 17 of them were flown to Phnom Penh yesterday morning from Indonesia’s Ambon island on a jet hired by the PT Maribu Industries Group, a company representing the Thai boats, Chou Bun Eng, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Interior, told reporters.

The remaining 17 will be flown to Cambodia later, she said, adding the company had agreed to pay outstanding salaries to the entire group.
“Some of them are in bad health. One cannot walk. His body is partly paralysed,” Chou Bun Eng added.

Sam Nak, 29, who was trafficked four years ago to work on a Thai fishing boat off Ambon, described enduring “slave-like conditions” before he was rescued by Indonesian authorities.

“I was forced to work day and night,” he said after arriving in Phnom Penh.

“It was like slavery. We had little time to rest,” Sam Nak, said, adding that he was owed around THB101,000 (USD3,000).

The repatriations follow the return of more than 100 fishermen last month from Indonesia’s island of Benjina.

In April Indonesia set up a special team to probe allegations of slavery in its fishing industry after nationals from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand were found trawling Indonesia’s bountiful fishing grounds.

Thailand, the world’s third largest seafood producer, is under international scrutiny after a slew of revelations about rampant exploitation in its fishing industries.

Thai companies have been linked to shadowy fishing operations in Indonesia, where many vessels are suspected of enslaving foreign fishermen – including Thais.

Cambodians desperate to make money outside of one of Southeast Asia’s poorest countries often become trafficking victims.

Last year, a Taiwanese woman was jailed for 10 years by a Cambodian court for trafficking hundreds of people to work on fishing boats off Africa.

http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2015/06/19/c ... hing-boats

Poor South East Asian migrant workers continue to be trafficked and tricked into working on Thai fishing boats. Here are some examples from Cambodia:

May 26, 2022
‘Stop falling prey to human traffickers’
Nang Veasna / Khmer Times
Fishermen easily fall prey to human trafficking and labour exploitation as they lack information about becoming migrant workers. Three fishermen who went through severe hardships shared their ordeal with Khmer Times.

One of them even had a chilling story of narrow escape from being sold by a broker. And the most unfortunate among them had to return to Cambodia empty-handed after working for 11 years in a foreign country.

Ny Neal, 57, a former migrant worker, said: “I worked as fisherman for one year and those were sleepless days. I was allowed to sleep only for two or three hours. As I was an illegal worker, they forced me to work overtime.”

“However, I was so lucky as I never had a salary problem. I know some illegal workers who always had to work overtime. Fishermen cannot escape as they are always on the sea, and many of them sometime don’t have money to return home. I had worked as a construction worker for over 20 years.”

“I want to tell one thing; anyone who is seeking job in a foreign country, please go legally. Illegal migration will be easy but it can land you in big issues like overwork, labour violation and even human trafficking.”

Pao Prech, 54, another fisherman, said that he decided to go to Thailand in 1995 because of his bad living condition. “I paid 3,500 Baht to the broker with the money my parents gave me after borrowing and selling jewellery from a neighbour.”

“My first job was that of a construction worker. I got a friend there who advised me to change my job as construction workers were paid less. He was working as angler and asked me to become a fisherman.”

“I worked for one and half years as a fisherman and it was very hard as Khmer workers usually got bullied by Thai workers. We were allowed to sleep only for one or two hours, and in months of March, September and December, there was no sleep at all.”
Article: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501082211/ ... affickers/

Little overexaggerated on the no sleep for the 3 months, the human body can cope with 4 hours per day.