Southern Shrimp Alliance Asks the Department of Labor to Close Loopholes in the Identification of Seafood Produced through Slave Labor
Yesterday, in response to a request for information and invitation to comment from the Bureau of International Labor Affairs, Department of Labor (“ILAB”), the Southern Shrimp Alliance asked the agency to close loopholes that exempt entire categories of seafood from being identified as produced through child or forced labor. Since 2009, ILAB has published a list of goods produced through […]
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection Issues Withhold Release Order Barring Imports from Fishing Vessel
In the context of the $6.5 billion worth of shrimp imported into the United States from all over the world in 2017, the $4.6 million in shrimp we imported from Myanmar (Burma) that year was just a small drop in a huge ocean. But $4.6 million worth of shrimp is still a lot of shrimp. And it was a substantial jump up […]
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Know Your Supplier (Continued): “Sold to the Sea: Human Trafficking in Thailand’s Fishing Industry”
When we talk about labor abuse problems in the Thai shrimp industry, the focus is on what takes place in shrimp peeling sheds. But the nature of labor abuse in Thailand is more sweeping and touches on other industries that are related to the shrimp exporting sector. Earlier this week, the Environmental Justice Foundation, a British NGO, released “Sold to […]
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Know Your Supplier (Continued): Forced Labor in Thai Shrimp Processing Industry
At the end of 2012, investigative reporter Matt Rusling published a story detailing his investigation into the abuse of migrant labor in the Thai shrimp industry on his on-line publication Borderless News. Mr. Rusling’s story traces the phenomena of forced labor in the Thai shrimp processing sector back to Mae Sot, “a bustling border town teeming with Burmese workers of […]
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Know Your Supplier (Continued): “Bad Cocktail” – Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Focus on Labor in Thai Shrimp Processing Industry
The work of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting investigating alleged labor abuses in the Thai shrimp processing sector is now featured on the Center’s website. The project, titled “Bad Cocktail: Labor Abuse in Thailand’s Shrimp Industry,” confirmed many of the allegations that have been leveled against the Thai shrimp industry. Specifically, independent peeling sheds often take advantage of migrant […]
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Know Your Supplier Continued: Eliminating Child and Forced Labor from the Shrimp Supply Chain
The U.S. Department of Labor released an updated “List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor” on Wednesday, as required by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005. In the fourth edition of the report, shrimp is once again highlighted as a commodity produced by both child and forced labor. Shrimp from Bangladesh and Cambodia is listed […]