Overview:
This three-year project assists vulnerable migrant workers and impoverished people who are trafficked for slave labour in the Thai fishing and seafood industry through deception, debt bondage, threats and violence. Thailand is a source, transit and destination country for traffickers making profits through slave labour. The overall aim of this project is to reduce the prevalence of forced labour in the industry through improved performance of the criminal justice systems and improved multilateral enforcement mechanisms in the destination country of Thailand and the source countries of Cambodia and Myanmar. Entrust will support the overall project through the provision of funding equivalent to two local social workers who will be engaged to; provide immediate care for 105 men/boys and women/girls rescued from the fishing industry; help them walk through the legal process; support survivors as they go back home to ensure they are safe; assess cross-border issues and needs, and build relationships with local service providers such as survivor shelters.
What we like about it:
We like the strategic and effective track record of our partners and have funded another project with them in Uganda. We appreciate that they tackle the problem at the law enforcement level which gets to the very heart of the issue. We like that this project works in partnership with local authorities and vulnerable communities to rescue victims, bring criminals to justice, restore survivors to safety and strengthen justice systems.
Budget: $25,000 per year for three years. Year 3 begins 1/7/20.
The Need:
Human trafficking is fundamentally a crime. Unless the Thai pubic justice system effectively holds traffickers accountable, boat captains, owners and recruiters will simply re-stock fishing vessels with vulnerable populations from surrounding countries such as Cambodia and Myanmar. Our partner’s studies found 37.9% of fisherman surveyed across five major Thai ports had been trafficked in the past five years, whilst another nearly half (49.2%) suffered other forms of labour exploitation.
Life Change: