A December investigation by the the Thomson Reuters foundation discovered that jails throughout Thailand are illegally forcing prisoners to make fishing nets for personal companies, together with people who export to the United States. Former prisoners Reuters interviewed said guards beat them, disallowed them to shower, and pushed back their release dates if they didn’t meet strict targets. Now, Thai and international rights groups urge the United States to halt imports of nets made in prison labour.
Last week, a coalition of 31 Thai and international groups submitted a petition calling to halt nets created from jail labour by the Khon Kaen Fishing Net, and Dechapanich Fishing Net. KKF said it will cut ties with any prisons found using pressured labour. A KKF official advised Reuters he feared a United States ban would cause job losses in Thailand. He stated there might only be one or two prisons that acted inappropriately, and the corporate has asked Thailand’s Corrections Department to come up with a standard pay fee for net making prisoners. The KKF mentioned it solely offered prison-made nets in Thailand and Southeast Asia, and not the United States.
Dechapanich did not respond to Reuters’s multiple requests for comment. The two companies make many shipments to the United States, together with to Trident Seafoods, the United States’s largest seafood company in 2019 and 2020. Like Dechapanich, Trident Seafoods also didn’t reply to multiple requests for remark.
Thailand’s prison work program was initially meant to help in giving prisoners job coaching for after they have been released.
Quick made via compelled prison labour from coming into the nation. A US Customs and Borders Protection spokesmen informed Reuters the agency has the proper to issue detention orders towards these items and forestall their gross sales in markets..