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Support grows for EU 'red card' on illegal Thai fishing and slave labour

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30263892-01_bigMEP Gabriel Mato (EPP, Spain), of the European Parliament’s Committee on Fisheries, has said that he would support giving an EU 'red card' ban on all seafood imports from Thailand if immediate restrictions are not placed on the country's illegal fishing and its practice of using slave labour is not abandoned.

Mato said that under the EU IUU (Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing) Regulation, authorities in the member states could refuse imports of fish products from countries identified by the EU as non-co-operating countries in the fight against illegal fishing.

Thailand was issued a 'yellow card' back on 21 April, due to its inadequate fisheries legal framework to fight illegal fishing and poor monitoring, control and traceability systems. According to procedure, in October, the Commission could wave the “yellow card”, maintain it, or issue a “red card”, effectively banning imports of fisheries products from Thailand to the EU market.

In recent weeks, testimony from survivors, human rights groups, as well as articles, have exposed appalling practices in Thailand’s export-oriented seafood business. These include slave labour, and the exploitation of thousands of stateless Rohingya boat people.

Mato said: “I fully support EU action undertaken up to now in this context, and I will support a "red card", if the situation does not improve. Apparently, it is not only a question of slave migrant labour in Thailand’s fisheries sector, which, by itself, could be enough to grant a "yellow card" to a country," adding that there were numerous cases of Thai vessels being seized by neighbouring coastal states, and their captains accused of fishing illegally.

Mato added that he felt  red cards had proved effective previously in addressing a similar situation in the Philippines, which led the country to improve its fisheries governance.

In April, the Commission had cited the following failures in Thailand's fishing policies:

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  • Weak fisheries legal framework. Following the last EU mission in 2014, Thailand rapidly adopted a revised fisheries act to replace the 1947 act, but the revised text was inadequate in both content and scope and does not address the complexities of fisheries and processing industries in Thailand;
  • The legal framework does not target serious infringements with deterrent sanctions depriving offenders of the economic benefits derived from the illicit activity and, therefore, it does not dissuade IUU fishing.
  • Monitoring, control and surveillance systems are poor. Satellite Vessel Monitoring Systems are equipped on less than 100 out of 45.000 fishing vessels (of which more than 7.000 commercial vessels) and thousands of vessels are thought to still be unregistered.
  • Traceability systems are failing to ensure fishery products exported to the EU are compliant with the requirements of IUU Regulation.  This is in part due to the weak cooperation between the different Thai administrations dealing with control at ports.

Earlier in July, Thailand's community leaders showed their support for their own government's crackdown on illegal fishing, according to a survey released earlier in July.

The European Commission handed Thailand the yellow card in April, giving the government six months to implement a corrective tailor-made action plan. Should the situation not improve, the EU could resort to banning fishery imports from Thailand.

“Yellow-carding has been proved to be a strong incentive for states to combat illegal fishing. Commissioner Vella has shown global leadership in implementing the EU’s tough illegal fishing regulation against such a significant fishing state,” said Environmental Justice Foundation Executive Director Steve Trent. “Thailand must now take positive action and work with the European Commission to be delisted.

“Thai authorities exert very little control over their fishing vessels, with many activities illegally damaging fish stocks and the marine environment, and this is linked to some of the most exploitative and inhuman working conditions documented anywhere. These conditions include the use of slaves and extreme violence.”

According to the European Commission, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) depletes fish stocks, destroys marine habitats, distorts competition, puts honest fishers at an unfair disadvantage, and weakens coastal communities, particularly in developing countries.The EU claims to be working to close the loopholes that allow illegal operators to profit from their activities:

  • The EU Regulation to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) entered into force on 1 January 2010. The Commission is working actively with all stakeholders to ensure coherent application of the IUU Regulation.
  • Only marine fisheries products validated as legal by the competent flag state or exporting state can be imported to or exported from the EU.
  • An IUU vessel list is issued regularly, based on IUU vessels identified by Regional Fisheries Management Organisations.
  • The IUU Regulation also offers the possibility to blacklist states that turn a blind eye to illegal fishing activities.
  • EU operators who fish illegally anywhere in the world, under any flag, face substantial penalties proportionate to the economic value of their catch, which deprive them of any profit.

Thailand is struggling with its own seafood prices, which are are rising internally as a result of efforts to meet international legislative obligations - major constraints on the capability of fisheries sector to sustain its contribution to food security are identified including overfishing in the Gulf of Thailand, environment issues on shrimp farming, loss of fishing gear, non-selectivity and poor handling, international trade restrictions and income distribution. Effective measures and management in all aspects will generate long term significant gains in fish supply as well as better economics and food security and hence social well beingand the knock-on effect on European consumers, and corporate responsibility.

A spokesman for the European Commission's Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries told EU Reporter: "The yellow-card regulation requires flag states to certify the origin and legality of their fish, thereby ensuring the full traceability of all marine fishery products traded from and into the EU.

"The measures therefore aim to ensure that countries comply with their own conservation and management rules as well as with internationally agreed rules. When flag states are unable to certify the legality of products in line with international rules, the Commission starts a process of co-operation and assistance with them to help improve their legal framework and practices. The milestones of this process are the warnings (yellow cards), the green cards if issues are solved and the red cards if they aren’t – with the latter leading to a trade ban.

"In addition to the certification scheme, the Regulation introduces an EU alert system to share information between custom authorities of member states about suspected cases of illegal practices.

"In short, Thailand must ensure, as quickly as possible that its fishing environment is improved, that significant measures are taken against human trafficking and inhumane labour conditions."

According to Cat DiStasio, writing in The Guardian: "Fishing is big business in Thailand, an industry worth $7.8 billion in 2013. Last year, the Thai seafood product headed for Europe totaled $717 million, and Thailand also exports to other parts of the world. In May, the European Union threatened to effect a ban on Thai seafood imports if the government did not address the human trafficking feeding the industry’s slave trade. Meanwhile, the Thai government issued a 10-day initiative to shut down slave camps and end human trafficking in the fishing industry. Officials claim trafficking is no longer taking place within the country’s borders.

"That may technically be true, but reports indicate closed-down trafficking camps have simply relocated to enormous off-shore cargo ships, where potentially thousands of Rohingya people are still being enslaved. Some boat captains are even protesting the government’s clampdown on slave trading, claiming that being forced to register migrant workers is an injustice to them as businessmen. Decades of overfishing and environmental destruction have created a competitive industry, where fishing boat owners are desperate to maximize their take anyway they can, even if it means buying and selling human beings as slaves. The end of slave labor on Thailand’s fishing boats could have a devastating impact on the industry’s future, but perhaps that’s what it will take in order to solve the egregious human rights violations happening at the expense of the bottom line."

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