The Associated Press has been investigating allegations that Thai seafood businesses have been using slave labor to peel their shrimp that they later export across the globe. Slave laborers are mainly Burmese immigrants. Peeling sheds are usually found on busy streets, but boarded off. The AP uncovered one such factory, and the workers then led investigators to the Gig Peeling Factory, and a third factory, all containing 50 to 100 laborers, many of who were locked inside, according to the Guardian. More than 2,000 trapped workers have been freed so far this year. Dozens of ringleaders have been arrested, millions of dollars have been seized and there are proposals for new laws.
The conditions for the laborers were harshly intense. Eae Hpaw, 16, recounted: "They didn't let us rest. We stopped working around 7 in the evening. We would take a shower and sleep. Then we would start again around 3 in the morning." Her arms were scarred from shrimp-related infections and allergies, according to the Associated Press. They were not called by their names, but dehumanized with a numerical label. Toilets overflowed with excrement, and raw sewage fumes came in through an open gutter, according to the Guardian. In the Samut Sakhon region of Thailand, it is worse, with an estimated 10,000 migrant children, aged 13-15, from Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar working as forced laborers.
In the U.S., reporters investigated in all 50 states and concluded that no state was exempt from carrying the forced labor-tainted shrimp. Retailers include Wal-Mart, Kroger, Whole Foods, Dollar General, Petco and restaurants such as Red Lobster and Olive Garden, according to the Associated Press.
"I want to eliminate this," the CEO of Aqua Star, Dirk Leuenberger, said. "I think it's disgusting that it's even remotely part of my business."
Human activists and U.S. officials are also showing their outrage, threatening to boycott shrimp and fish associated with supply chains in Thailand. "All of us may find ourselves eating a slave-made product without knowing it, but once we know it, we all have a moral obligation, I believe, to make a personal decision to boycott it," said New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
While Thailand has been cracking down on this problem, corruption does persist, with police looking the other way, or in some cases, freeing laborers only to sell them back to the factory.
