“Following a petition our international coalition submitted to the Biden Administration on February 11, alongside media pressure, the Thai government says it will end the use of forced labor in prisons. The petition called on the U.S. government to ban the import of fishing nets made by companies that use forced prison labor in Thailand and came after months of investigative work and legal analysis. This is a victory we share with everyone fighting for workers’ rights in Thailand and in the seafood industry around the world. We will continue our work to ensure Thailand follows through on its pledge. It is commendable that the Department of Corrections will establish labor committees in all of Thailand’s 143 prisons. These could be strengthened through public release of findings and by allowing independent inspection bodies access to all prisons.  We are also calling on U.S. seafood giant Trident Seafoods, which bought nets from one of the implicated companies, to commit to upholding international labor rights standards, to conduct human rights due diligence throughout its entire supply chain, and to provide effective remedy to workers for any labor violations found.”

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GLJ–ILRF is a newly merged organization that brings strategic capacity to cross-sectoral work on global value chains and labor migration corridors.

The Seafood Working Group (SWG) is a global coalition of human rights, labor and environmental organizations that work together to develop and advocate for effective government policies and industry actions to end the related problems of labor exploitation, illegal fishing and overfishing in the international seafood trade.