“We were sold for $430 per person. I felt very depressed when I ended up on the boat. I felt I was in hell”- Myo Zaw Do, a migrant from Burma who was sold on Thai fishing ships.1
Myo Zaw Do, a migrant from Burma, describes how he was sold into slavery on Thai fishing boats for only $430. He was forced to work without pay and suffered brutal beatings by the captain, including one in which his head was slammed so violently into the ice on the deck that he is now partially deaf. Trafficked workers endure regular beatings, torture, and execution-style killings. Some are even driven to suicide, all to support the flow of cheap, farmed shrimp distributed throughout the world.2
Two big global retailers – Walmart and Costco – are named as customers of a seafood supplier in Thailand with proven links to slavery.3 Which means that shrimp farmed with slave labor is ending up on your plate.
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are considering the Business Supply Chain Transparency on Trafficking and Slavery Act of 2015 that encourages businesses to disclose what efforts they take to identify human trafficking in supply chains. You can tell the House of Representatives to hold companies accountable for the millions of children, men, and women trapped in the everyday nightmare of forced labor. These disclosures would also allow consumers to make informed decisions about what products they buy and which companies they invest in.
Tell the House of Representatives to take the first step to passing the Business Supply Chain Transparency on Trafficking and Slavery Act of 2015 (H.R. 3226) by holding a hearing. Together we can shine a light on this hidden crime.
*Myo Zaw Do is a pseudonym.
Notes:
- https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/mar/04/thai-seafood-industry-burmese-migrant-trafficking-ordeal ↩
- https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/mar/04/thai-seafood-industry-burmese-migrant-trafficking-ordeal ↩
- http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/jun/10/supermarket-prawns-thailand-produced-slave-labour ↩
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