Rights from Ship to Shore : Legal Education for Fisheries Migrant Workers

     That is because the site of the violation is often on the ship in the middle of the sea without the presence of an objective observer or the willingness of boat crew to testify as witnesses. Thus, many of these migrant boat crew become an invisible labor force in the eyes of the people on the shore and the law.

     Recognition of the need to improve rights protections for this group of migrants can be traced back to 2015, when the European Commission (EU) issued regulations on the prevention and eradication of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU Fishing).  Thailand was issued a yellow card according to EU regulations because of documentation of illegal fishing.

     At that time, there was pressure to take action to improve fisheries regulations, and one of the topics of importance was the consideration of labor rights in the fishing industry.  That is also the origin of the “Ship to Shore Rights Project”. This is a project to educate cross-border migrant fishermen about labor protections law and the Thai Royal Decree on the management of migrant workers.  The Project was implemented in 6 provinces, namely, Samut Sakorn, Surat Thani, Pattani, Chumphon, Ranong, and Trang, and was financially supported by the EU and the International Labor Organization.

     The role of the Raks Thai Foundation (Raks Thai) in the Ship to Shore Rights Project was to provide knowledge on labor rights, and empower leaders of cross-border migrant labor to continue to educate their peers after the formal end of the Project.

     Raks Thai implemented its share of Project activities out of branch offices in the target provinces, with a priority on locations where Raks Thai has worked with networks of migrant fishermen peer leaders, and where the migrants had already self-organized into informal groups. Raks Thai teamed up with those networks to implement activities under this Project.

     Wasurat Homsud, Raks Thai Field Coordinator, described that educating this group of migrant workers was intended to be done in medium-size groups in the communities where they lived. However, there was not always space in the living quarters in migrant communities to conduct the education.  Accordingly, the Project staff had to conduct the education on the boats with small groups of crew since the fishing boats are quite small and very cramped. The educational media also had to be simplified.  Instead of using PowerPoint slides and video, the outreach educators distributed hand-outs made of vinyl or other durable material which the migrants could keep with them.   The topics included basic labor rights, social security rights, etc., and the migrants were given a contact number to anonymously report labor violations they saw or heard about.

     Khun Wasurat said that more than 80 percent of cases of labor rights violation of fishing boat crew are filed with the Provincial Labor Protection Welfare Office. The complaints are mostly about withheld wages, or confiscation of identity documents by employers to deter migrants from leaving the job.  There are some cases of reports of physical abuse by the boat captain.

      However, cases of abuse of crew at sea are obviously hard to substantiate.  Crew are probably warned of dire consequences if they report abuse to the authorities.   Thus, any official reports are certainly a serious undercount.  Instead, the Raks Thai field staff rely on more subtle and indirect means.  When they go on the boats to do crew education, they may look for signs and symptoms that a crew member has been physically abused.  Raks Thai also recruits and trains volunteer peer educators among the migrant crew to serve as eyes and ears of what goes on at sea and in the lives of the crew.  Altogether, Raks Thai has recruited and trained over 200 peer educators as part of the Project. 

     During two years of implementation (June 2017 – July 2019) the Ship to Shore Rights Project was able to provide direct education for 1,723 migrant workers on their basic labor rights.  Further, 161 were trained in leadership skills and basic legal assistance.   Through this effort, the Project was able to assist 166 cases, 116 of which were resolved to the satisfaction of the migrant worker.

     Issues on the rights of migrant fishermen is a particularly difficult and sensitive area to work in.  The crew are very reluctant to report on any negative things they observe at sea. They are justifiably fearful that there could be serious repercussions for themselves or their accompanying family members if they report abuse.  Also, many of the migrants are of the opinion that they generally knew what they were getting into before they came, and they didn’t come this far only to risk being fired or repatriated.  However, just because it is difficult to document abuse and bring rights violators to justice, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to help this vulnerable group of cross-border migrant workers to the greatest extent possible.