Page 16 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
January 2, 2017
Thai Navy shows off technology to fight fishing abuses
FISHING FOR CORRUPTION. A Thai navy
officer, top photo, uses a new GPS tracking system
to monitor locations of Thai fishing vessels in the wa-
ters off the coast of Samut Sakhon in Thailand. The
Thai Navy showed off new technology to monitor fish-
ing boats in a renewed effort to crack down on illegal
fishing, forced labor, and corruption in the seafood in-
dustry. In the bottom photo, crew members of a fish-
ing boat show their identity cards to Thai navy officers
during a search of their boat in the waters off the coast
of Samut Sakhon. (AP Photos/Dake Kang)
By Dake Kang
The Associated Press
S
AMUT SAKHON, Thailand —
Thailand’s navy showed off new
technology to monitor fishing boats
in a renewed effort to crack down on illegal
fishing, forced labor, and corruption in the
seafood industry.
New equipment the navy has been test-
ing includes a GPS tracking system to
monitor fishing vessels, a central data-
base, and a scanner for officials to check
documents.
The system, demonstrated to reporters,
won’t fully be in place until April, but
outside groups are already skeptical it will
achieve what it’s set out to do unless more
human enforcement is put into place.
Thailand has been under pressure from
the European Union (EU) after revelations
it relied heavily on forced labor, and is
facing a potential total EU ban on seafood
imports unless it reforms its fishing
industry.
“We’re doing this to increase the effec-
tiveness of inspection, because putting hu-
mans in the loop has caused some errors in
the past,” said Cdr. Piyanan Kaewmanee,
head of a Thai navy group that oversees
illegal fishing, who pointed to corrupt offi-
cials as a major issue. “We can ensure our
workers are accounted for, and aren’t lost
at sea or transferred from ship to ship.”
New was a handheld scanner that can
read crew identification and other papers
to make sure workers are documented and
the fishing gear is licensed. During the
inspection
demonstration,
workers
crouched and huddled together, holding up
green identification cards as Thai navy
sailors boarded their ship, looked through
documents, and patted down workers.
The scanners will be integrated into a
vessel-monitoring system that will keep
track of the location of all Thai fishing
vessels using GPS technology and a
central database, said Cdr. Kaewmanee.
The monitoring improvements follow
international pressure after an Associated
Press report revealed Thai boats were
using slaves from countries including
Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos to catch
fish, putting a spotlight on illegal practices
in the industry, such as unregistered boats
and unsustainable fishing.
In April 2015, the European Union gave
Thailand a “yellow card” on its fishing
exports, warning the country that it could
face a total ban if it didn’t clean up its act —
prompting Thai Prime Minister Prayuth
Chan-ocha to exercise executive powers to
create a Command Center for Combatting
Illegal Fishing soon after.
Independent observers cautiously wel-
comed the new equipment, but said Thai-
land must go beyond technology to ensure
its seafood is caught without forced labor.
“To put more muscle into enforcement of
Thai labor law, you’ve got to engage
directly with workers,” said Jason Judd,
senior technical officer at the Interna-
tional Labor Organization office in Bang-
kok. “Technology can help us to develop
that, but really it’s not a substitute for
what’s needed most, which is a face-to-face
interaction between those who are
responsible for enforcing the law — the
Thai government — and the fishermen.”
Thailand recently lifted a ban on hiring
foreign nationals for its inspection crews,
paving the way for Cambodian and Myan-
mar translators to interpret between Thai
police and migrant fishing workers. But
the translators will only interview workers
if a vessel is explicitly flagged for abuse or
wrongdoing, Thai navy officials said.
EU officials will visit Thailand this
month to see what progress the govern-
ment has made, following up on a visit a
year ago.