Combating the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Shrimp and Seafood Processing Areas in Thailand

Thailand’s economic success combined with its progressive education and social policies provide favourable conditions for the elimination of child labour. The country has made considerable progress in tackling child labour over the last two decades and now has a strong legal and policy framework to address child labour in place. Yet Thailand’s strong economic development masks underlying social disparities among the population and especially between Thai nationals and the large communities of migrant workers. The problem of child labour remains among vulnerable communities and, particularly, among unregistered migrant workers from neighbouring countries. Child labour continues to be documented in agriculture, seafood processing and fisheries, manufacturing, domestic work and entertainment services. The prevalence of child labour in the shrimp and associated seafood processing industry has been identified by the Royal Thai Government (RTG) and ILO-IPEC as demanding a focused effort towards its elimination. There is substantial documentation of child labour in the shrimp production value chain provided by recent research studies and by the ILO-IPEC’s project of Support to National Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour” (WFCL Thailand Project). The nature of child labour as documented in these studies ranges from cases of forced labour and slavery-like conditions of children working alongside adults in shrimp processing factories in the major shrimp and seafood processing hub of Samut Sakhon Province, to employment of children, both under legal working age and of working age, in conditions hazardous to their health and safety, such as work involving heavy lifting and long hours of work. Child labour has been identified predominantly among migrant workers in shrimp and seafood processing in Samut Sakhon Province; but it is also found among Thai children in the southern coastal province of Songkhla and the neighbouring province of Nakhon Si Thammarat, where children are found engaged in fish sorting on the docks, small-scale family based fishing, and small-scale seafood processing. Shrimp and seafood aquaculture and processing are also concentrated in Surat Thani Province, which lies on the coast between Samut Sakhon and Songkhla. A study is underway as part of the project preparation to assess the situation of child labour in both Surat Thani and Songkhla provinces. The factors contributing to child labour differ between migrant and Thai children. The shrimp industry is one of the labour-intensive export industries in Thailand that attract migrant workers from neighbouring Myanmar, Cambodia and Lao PDR. There is a high labour demand and Thai workers are often unwilling to take the typically low-paid and dirty work in the industry; while migrant workers are prepared to do work almost any work where they can earn more income than at home. To a great extent the industry has become reliant on migrant labour, but migrant families and their dependants are extremely vulnerable to exploitation under the governance of labour migration management. Only a fraction of migrant workers enter Thailand through registered channels, and once they enter, those who register for work permits find that their movement is restricted and their registration as migrant workers tied to their employer. As a result, a large proportion of migrants, estimated at over 70 per cent in 2008, remain unregistered, which puts them in a precarious situation as they risk threats of deportation, extortion and labour abuse. This vulnerability leads to barriers of access to school for migrant children, which coupled with low incomes of shrimp workers, pressures migrant families to allow their children to work. Among Thai communities, child labour is thought to more common among 15 to 17 year olds working in hazardous conditions than among children under 15. However, in regional fishery and seafood processing areas employment opportunities are lim

Project symbol

THA/10/50/USA

Admin unit

CO-Bangkok

Start date

31/12/2010

End date

31/08/2016

Total allocation

8260000

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

7781569

Development Partners

USA, United States Department of Labor, Bureau for International Labor Affairs, Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking

Country/Countries

Thailand

Outcomes

Child Labour