US seafood lawsuit: Cambodian villagers sue Thai & US companies

Five Cambodian villagers now resident in US sue Thai & US companies for labour abuse while working in Thais seafood factory.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE & HUMAN TRAFFICKING

US seafood lawsuit: Cambodian villagers sue Thai & US companies

17/06/2016
Reuters News agency

NEW YORK - Rural Cambodian villagers have filed a lawsuit against four US and Thai companies, accusing them of human trafficking and making them work in forced - labour conditions in a Thai seafood factory.

Their civil complaint filed in California federal court accuses the four companies in a joint venture of violating the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, a US law that aims to prevent human trafficking.

Retailing giant Walmart purchases shrimp and other seafood from the companies, two of which have US offices, according to the complaint.

Thailand's reputation has suffered in recent years after numerous investigations by news organisations and rights groups into human trafficking, slavery and violence in its multi - billion dollar seafood industry.

It has vowed to crack down on human trafficking and slavery and recently introduced reforms to its fisheries law.

PASSPORTS TAKEN AWAY & WAGES REDUCED

The five Cambodian men and two women are filing suit in a Los Angeles court.

They claim that after they left their homeland for Thailand, factory managers confiscated their passports and made them work up to six days a week for wages that were less than promised.

Some "were reduced to eating seafood they found washed up on the beach", the complaint said.

They were not allowed to retrieve their passports to leave and return home, it said.

"What happened to me was wrong," said Keo Ratha in a statement accompanying the lawsuit.

"I filed this suit so companies would think twice before exploiting trafficked workers in the future."

The complaint claims the Cambodian workers were victims of involuntary and debt servitude, forced labour and human trafficking in 2010 and 2011.

The named companies include Rubicon Resources in the US and Wales & Co Universe, incorporated in Thailand but registered to conduct business in California. The two Thai companies are Phatthana Seafood and SS Frozen Food. Phatthana Seafood or PTN Group is reportedly a Bangkok-based food exporter while SS Frozen Food, which is based in Songkhla has become a PTN Group's subsidiary since 2009.

SEEKING DAMAGES FOR UNPAID WAGES, MENTAL ANGUISH, PAIN & SUFFERING

The workers are seeking an unspecified amount of money for unpaid wages, mental anguish, pain and suffering in the suit, filed on Wednesday in US District Court for the Central District of California.

"These are lovely, hard-working and decent people who really deserve better," their lead attorney Agnieszka Fryszman said.

Nearly 21 million people globally are victims of forced labour, an industry that generates $150 billion a year in illegal profits, according to the United Nation's International Labour Organization (ILO).

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1012661/us-seafood-lawsuit-makes-human-trafficking-claims

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