Dita Alangkara • AP Photo Migrant fishermen raise their hands as they are asked who among them want to go home at the compound of Pusaka Benjina Resources fishing company in Benjina, Aru Islands, .

SEAFOOD from SLAVES

By ROBIN McDOWELL, , and The [ SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES ]

1. AP INVESTIGATION: ARE SLAVES CATCHING THE FISH YOU BUY? 6. AP EXCLUSIVE: AP TRACKS SLAVE BOATS March 25, 2015: AP Investigation: Are slaves catching July 27, 2015: AP tracks slave fishing boats to Papua the fish you buy? New Guinea after flight from Indonesia.

2. VIDEO: US SUPPLY CHAIN TAINTED 7. MORE THAN 2,000 ENSLAVED FISHERMEN RESCUED March 24, 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch? Sept. 17, 2015: AP investigation prompts rescue of more v=vgYgAVQG5lk&feature=youtu.be than 2,000 slaves, plus arrests, lawsuits, legislation.

3. AP INVESTIGATION PROMPTS EMERGENCY RESCUE 8. SHRIMP SHEDS April 3, 2015: AP investigation prompts emergency Dec. 14, 2015: Global supermarkets selling shrimp rescue of 300 plus slaves. peeled by slaves

4. US LETS IN THAI FISH CAUGHT BY SLAVES 9. SUPERMARKETS SELLING SHRIMP PEELED BY SLAVES April 22, 2015: US lets in Thai fish caught by slaves Dec. 14, 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= despite law. 9IeJOnCQlj0&feature=youtu.be

5. 22-YEARS A SLAVE June 29, 2015: One man’s homecoming after he lost more than 2 decades. http://interactives.ap.org/2015/ seafood-from-slaves/?START=freedom STORY 1

March 25, 2015 AP Investigation: Are slaves catching the fish you buy?

By ROBIN McDOWELL, MARGIE MASON AND MARTHA MENDOZA Associated Press

BENJINA, Indonesia (AP) said Kyaw Naing, his dark eyes pleading he Burmese slaves sat on the floor into an Associated Press video camera and stared through the rusty bars sneaked in by a sympathetic worker. “The T of their locked cage, hidden on next time we docked,” he said nervously a tiny tropical island thousands of miles out of earshot of a nearby guard, “I was from home. locked up.” Just a few yards away, other workers Here, in the Indonesian island village loaded cargo ships with slave-caught of Benjina and the surrounding waters, seafood that clouds the supply networks hundreds of trapped men represent one of major supermarkets, restaurants and of the most desperate links criss-crossing even pet stores in the United States. between companies and countries in the But the eight imprisoned men were seafood industry. This intricate web of considered flight risks — laborers who connections separates the fish we eat from might dare run away. They lived on a few the men who catch it, and obscures a brutal bites of rice and curry a day in a space truth: Your seafood may come from slaves. barely big enough to lie down, stuck until the next trawler forces them back to sea. EDITOR’S NOTE: The Associated Press “All I did was tell my captain I couldn’t notified the International Organization take it anymore, that I wanted to go home,” for Migration about men in this story,

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 1 of 13 Dita Alangkara • AP Thai and Burmese fishing boat workers sit inside a cell at the compound of a fishing company in Benjina, Indonesia. The imprisoned men were considered slaves who might run away. who were then moved out of Benjina stores, such as , Albertsons and by police for their safety. Hundreds of Safeway; the nation’s largest retailer, Wal- slaves remain on the island, and five Mart; and the biggest food distributor, Sysco. other men were in the cage this week. It can find its way into the supply chains of some of the most popular brands of canned The men the AP interviewed on pet food, including Fancy Feast, Meow Mix Benjina were mostly from , and Iams. It can turn up as calamari at fine also known as Burma, one of the poorest dining restaurants, as imitation crab in a countries in the world. They were brought California sushi roll or as packages of frozen to Indonesia through and forced snapper relabeled with store brands that to fish. Their catch was then shipped back land on our dinner tables. to Thailand, where it entered the global In a year-long investigation, the AP stream of commerce. talked to more than 40 current and former Tainted fish can wind up in the supply slaves in Benjina. The AP documented chains of some of America’s major grocery the journey of a single large shipment of

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 2 of 13 slave-caught seafood from the Indonesian ensure their supplies are clean. They said village, tracking it by satellite to a the discovery of slaves underscores how gritty Thai harbor. Upon its arrival, AP hard it is to monitor what goes on halfway journalists followed trucks that loaded around the world. and drove the seafood over four nights Santa Monica Seafood, a large to dozens of factories, cold storage plants independent importer that sells to and the country’s biggest fish market. restaurants, markets and direct from The tainted seafood mixes in with its store, has been a leader in improving other fish at a number of sites in Thailand, international fisheries, and sends buyers including processing plants. U.S. Customs around the world to inspect vendors. records show that several of those Thai “The supply chain is quite cloudy, factories ship to America. They also sell especially when it comes from offshore,” to Europe and Asia, but the AP traced said Logan Kock, vice president for

They were kicked, whipped with toxic stingray tails or otherwise beaten if they [ complained or tried to rest. ] shipments to the U.S., where trade records responsible sourcing, who acknowledged are public. that the industry recognizes and is working By this time, it is nearly impossible to to address the problem. “Is it possible a tell where a specific fish caught by a slave little of this stuff is leaking through? Yeah, ends up. However, entire supply chains it is possible. We are all aware of it.” are muddied, and money is trickling The slaves interviewed by the AP had down the line to companies that benefit no idea where the fish they caught was from slave labor. headed. They knew only that it was so The major corporations contacted valuable, they were not allowed to eat it. would not speak on the record but issued They said the captains on their fishing statements that strongly condemned boats forced them to drink unclean water and labor abuses. All said they were taking work 20- to 22-hour shifts with no days off. steps to prevent forced labor, such as Almost all said they were kicked, whipped working with human rights groups to hold with toxic stingray tails or otherwise beaten subcontractors accountable. if they complained or tried to rest. They Several independent seafood were paid little or nothing, as they hauled distributors who did comment described in heavy nets with squid, shrimp, snapper, the costly and exhaustive steps taken to grouper and other fish.

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 3 of 13 Some shouted for help over the deck of their trawler in the port to reporters, as bright fluorescent lights silhouetted their faces in the darkness. “I want to go home. We all do,” one man called out in Burmese, a cry repeated by others. The AP is not using the names of some men for their safety. “Our parents haven’t heard from us for a long time. I’m sure they think we are dead.” AP Photo • APTN Image from video, Kyaw Naing, a slave from Myanmar, Another glanced fearfully over his looks through the bars of a cell at the compound of a shoulder toward the captain’s quarters, fishing company in Benjina, Indonesia. and then yelled: “It’s torture. When we get beaten, we can’t do anything back. ... I for several months of the year, when think our lives are in the hands of the Lord monsoon rains churn the Arafura Sea. It is of Death.” further cut off by a lack of Internet access. In the worst cases, numerous men Before a cell tower was finally installed reported maimings or even deaths on last month, villagers would climb nearby their boats. hills each evening in the hope of finding a “If Americans and Europeans are signal strong enough to send a text. An old eating this fish, they should remember landing strip has not been used in years. us,” said Hlaing Min, 30, a runaway slave The small harbor is occupied by Pusaka from Benjina. “There must be a mountain Benjina Resources, whose five-story office of bones under the sea. ... The bones of the compound stands out and includes the people could be an island, it’s that many.” cage with the slaves. The company is the only fishing operation on Benjina officially or Burmese slaves, Benjina is the end registered in Indonesia, and is listed Fof the world. as the owner of more than 90 trawlers. Roughly 3,500 people live in the However, the captains are Thai, and the town that straddles two small islands Indonesian government is reviewing to separated by a five-minute boat ride. Part see if the boats are really Thai-owned. of the Maluku chain, formerly known as Pusaka Benjina did not respond to phone the Spice Islands, the area is about 400 calls and a letter, and did not speak to a miles north of Australia, and hosts small reporter who waited for two hours in the kangaroos and rare birds of paradise with company’s Jakarta office. dazzling bright feathers. On the dock in Benjina, former slaves Benjina is impossible to reach by boat unload boats for food and pocket money.

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 4 of 13 Wong Maye-E • AP Frozen seafood is off-loaded from a refrigerated cargo ship called the Silver Sea Line, at Thajeen Port in Samut Sakhon, Thailand.

Many are men who were abandoned by Benjina, as other men nodded or looked at their captains — sometimes five, 10 or the ground. “Now I know that’s not true.” even 20 years ago — and remain stranded. The Arafura Sea provides some of the In the deeply forested island interiors, world’s richest and most diverse fishing new runaways forage for food and collect grounds, teeming with mackerel, tuna, rainwater, living in constant fear of being squid and many other species. found by hired slave catchers. Although it is Indonesian territory, And just off a beach covered in sharp it draws many illegal fishing fleets, coral, a graveyard swallowed by the jungle including from Thailand. The trade that entombs dozens of fishermen. They are results affects the United States and other buried under fake Thai names given to countries. them when they were tricked or sold onto The U.S. counts Thailand as one of its their ships, forever covering up evidence top seafood suppliers, and buys about 20 of their captors’ abuse, their friends say. percent of the country’s $7 billion annual “I always thought if there was an exports in the industry. Last year, the entrance there had to be an exit,” said State Department blacklisted Thailand Tun Lin Maung, a slave abandoned on for failing to meet minimum standards

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 5 of 13 in fighting , placing by any measure.” the country in the ranks of , The Thai government says it is cleaning Syria and Iran. However, there were no up the problem. On the bustling floor of additional sanctions. North America’s largest seafood show in Thailand’s seafood industry is largely Boston earlier this month, an official for run off the backs of migrant laborers, the Department of Fisheries laid out a said Kendra Krieder, a State Department plan to address labor abuse, including new analyst who focuses on supply chains. The laws that mandate wages, sick leave and treatment of some of these workers falls shifts of no more than 14 hours. However, under the U.S. government’s definition Kamonpan Awaiwanont stopped short of slavery, which includes forcing people when presented details about the men in to keep working even if they once signed Benjina. up for the jobs, or trafficking them into “This is still happening now?” he situations where they are exploited. asked. He paused. “We are trying to solve “In the most extreme cases, you’re it. This is ongoing.” talking about someone kidnapped or The Thai government also promises tricked into working on a boat, physically a new national registry of illegal migrant beaten, chained,” said Krieder. “These workers, including more than 100,000 situations would be called modern slavery flooding the seafood industry. However,

Ellise Amendola • AP Thai Frozen Foods Association President Dr. Poj Aramwattananont at the Seafood Expo in Boston. He said Thai companies cannot always track down the origins of their fish .

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 6 of 13 Dita Alangkara • AP Hla Phyo stands next to a grave marker of a Burmese fisherman slave who died on a fishing boat. Men are being buried under fake Thai names from their fraudulent travel documents. policing has now become even harder for months or sometimes years at a time, because decades of illegal fishing have essentially creating floating prisons. depleted stocks close to home, pushing the Susi Pudjiastuti, the new Fisheries boats farther and deeper into foreign waters. Minister, said she has heard of different The Indonesian government has fishing companies putting men in cells. called a temporary ban on most fishing, She added that she believes the trawlers aiming to clear out foreign poachers who on Benjina may really have Thai owners, take billions of dollars of seafood from despite the Indonesian paperwork, the country’s waters. As a result, more reflecting a common practice of faking or than 50 boats are now docked in Benjina, duplicating licenses. leaving up to 1,000 more slaves stranded She said she is deeply disturbed about onshore and waiting to see what will the abuse on Benjina and other islands. happen next. “I’m very sad. I lose my eating appetite. I Indonesian officials are trying to lose my sleep,” she said. “They are building enforce laws that ban cargo ships from up an empire on slavery, on stealing, on picking up fish from boats at sea. This fish(ing) out, on massive environmental practice forces men to stay on the water destruction for a plate of seafood.”

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 7 of 13 he story of slavery in the Thai seafood from this type of business.” T industry started decades ago with the Illegal Thai boats are falsely registered same push-and-pull that shapes economic to fish in Indonesia through graft, immigration worldwide — the hope of sometimes with the help of government escaping grinding poverty to find a better authorities. Praporn Ekouru, a Thai former life somewhere else. member of Parliament, admitted to the AP In recent years, as the export business that he had bribed Indonesian officials to has expanded, it has become more difficult go into their waters, and complained that to convince young Burmese or Cambodian the Indonesian government’s crackdown migrants and impoverished Thais — all of is hurting business. whom were found on Benjina — to accept “In the past, we sent Thai boats to fish the dangerous jobs. Agents have become in Indonesian waters by changing their

Agents have become more desperate and ruthless, recruiting children and the disabled, lying about [ wages and even drugging and kidnapping migrants. ] more desperate and ruthless, recruiting flags,” said Praporn, who is also chairman children and the disabled, lying about of the Songkhla Fisheries Association wages and even drugging and kidnapping in southern Thailand. “We had to pay migrants, according to a former broker bribes of millions of baht per year, or who spoke on condition of anonymity to about 200,000 baht ($6,100) per month. avoid retribution. ... The officials are not receiving money The broker said agents then sell the anymore because this order came from slaves, usually to Thai captains of fishing the government.” boats or the companies that own them. Illegal workers are given false Each slave typically costs around $1,000, documents, because Thai boats cannot according to Patima Tungpuchayakul, hire undocumented crew. One of the manager of the Thai-based nonprofit Labor slaves in Benjina, Maung Soe, said he was Rights Promotion Network Foundation. given a fake seafarer book belonging to a The men are later told they have to work Thai national, accepted in Indonesia as an off the “debt” with wages that don’t come informal travel permit. He rushed back to for months or years, or at all. his boat to dig up a crinkled copy. “The employers are probably more “That’s not my name, not my worried about the fish than the workers’ signature,” he said angrily, pointing at the lives,” she said. “They get a lot of money worn piece of paper. “The only thing on

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 8 of 13 AP Photo • APTN Maung Soe of Myanmar holds up a copy of the seafarer’s book given to him before he boarded a Thai fishing trawler. “That’s not my name, not my signature,” he said. “The only thing on here that is real is my photograph.” here that is real is my photograph.” ship’s giant freezer, where temperatures Soe said he had agreed to work on a drop to 39 degrees below zero. fishing boat only if it stayed in Thai waters, “It was so cold, our hands were because he had heard Indonesia was a place burning,” he said. “No one really cared if from which workers never came back. anyone died.” “They tricked me,” he said. “They lied to me. ... They created fake papers and he shipment the AP tracked from put me on the boat, and now here I am in Tthe port of Benjina carried fish from Indonesia.” smaller trawlers; AP journalists talked to The slaves said the level of abuse on slaves on more than a dozen of them. the fishing boats depends on individual A crane hoisted the seafood onto a captains and assistants. Aung Naing Win, refrigerated cargo ship called the Silver Sea who left a wife and two children behind Line, with an immense hold as big as 50 in Myanmar two years ago, said some semi-trucks. At this point, by United Nations fishermen were so depressed that they and U.S. standards, every fish in that hold is simply threw themselves into the water. considered associated with slavery. Win, 40, said his most painful task was The ship belongs to the Silver Sea working without proper clothing in the Reefer Co., which is registered in Thailand

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 9 of 13 and has at least nine refrigerated cargo subsidiary KF Foods Ltd. sends about 100 boats. The company said it is not involved metric tons of seafood from Thailand to with the fishermen. America, according to U.S. Customs Bills “We only carry the shipment and we of Lading. These shipments have gone to are hired in general by clients,” said owner Santa Monica Seafood, Stavis Seafoods — Panya Luangsomboon. “We’re separated located on Boston’s historic Fish Pier — from the fishing boats.” and other distributors. The AP followed the Silver Sea Line Richard Stavis, whose grandfather by satellite over 15 days to Samut Sakhon. started the dealership in 1929, shook When it arrived, workers on the dock his head when told about the slaves packed the seafood over four nights whose catch may end up at businesses onto more than 150 trucks, which then he buys from. He said his company delivered their loads around the city. visits processors and fisheries, requires One truck bore the name and bird logo notarized certification of legal practices of Kingfisher Holdings Ltd., which supplies and uses third-party audits. frozen and canned seafood around the “The truth is, these are the kind of

The AP followed the Silver Sea Line by satellite [ over 15 days to Samut Sakhon. ] world. Another truck went to Mahachai things that keep you up at night,” he said. Marine Foods Co., a cold storage business “That’s the sort of thing I want to stop. ... that also supplies to Kingfisher and other There are companies like ours that care exporters, according to Kawin Ngernanek, and are working as hard as they can.” whose family runs it. Wholesalers like Stavis sell packages “Yes, yes, yes, yes,” said Kawin, who also of fish, branded and unbranded, that serves as spokesman for the Thai Overseas can end up on supermarket shelves with Fisheries Association. “Kingfisher buys a private label or house brand. Stavis’ several types of products.” customers also include Sysco, the largest When asked about abusive labor food distributor in the U.S.; there is no practices, Kingfisher did not answer clear way to know which particular fish repeated requests for comment. Mahachai was sold to them. manager Narongdet Prasertsri responded, Sysco declined an interview, but the “I have no idea about it at all.” company’s code of conduct says it “will not Every month, Kingfisher and its knowingly work with any supplier that uses

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 10 of 13 AP Photo • APTN In this image from video, slaves from Myanmar lean over the deck of their fishing trawler at the port in Benjina, Indonesia. “I want to go home. We all do,” one man called out in Burmese, a cry repeated by others. forced, bonded, indentured or slave labor.” later, when confronted about forced Gavin Gibbons, a spokesman for labor in their supply chain, Niwat National Fisheries Institute, which referred several requests for comment to represents about 75 percent of the U.S. Luangsomboon, who could not be reached seafood industry, said the reports of abuse for further comment. were “disturbing” and “disheartening.” Thai Union Manufacturing is a ‘’But these type of things flourish in the subsidiary of Thai Union Frozen Products shadows,” he said. PCL., the country’s largest seafood A similar pattern repeats itself with corporation, with $3.5 billion in annual other shipments and other companies, sales. This parent company, known simply as the supply chain splinters off in many as Thai Union, owns Chicken of the Sea directions in Samut Sakhon. It is in this and is buying Bumble Bee, although the Thai port that slave-caught seafood starts AP did not observe any tuna fisheries. In to lose its history. September, it became the country’s first The AP followed another truck to business to be certified by Dow Jones Niwat Co., which sells to Thai Union for sustainable practices, after meeting Manufacturing Co., according to part environmental and social reviews. owner Prasert Luangsomboon. Weeks Thai Union said it condemns human

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 11 of 13 rights violations, but multiple stakeholders well-documented, making it difficult must be part of the solution. “We all have to estimate exactly how much seafood to admit that it is difficult to ensure the available on supermarket shelves around Thai seafood industry’s supply chain is the world is tainted by human trafficking 100 percent clean,” CEO Thiraphong and forced labor,” she said. Chansiri said in an emailed statement. Poj Aramwattananont, president of Thai Union ships thousands of cans of an industry group that represents Thai cat food to the U.S., including household Union, Kingfisher and others, said Thais brands like Fancy Feast, Meow Mix and are not “jungle people” and know that Iams. These end up on shelves of major human trafficking is wrong. However, grocery chains, such as Kroger, Safeway he acknowledged that Thai companies and Albertsons, as well as pet stores; cannot always track down the origins of again, however, it’s impossible to tell if their fish. a particular can of cat food might have “We don’t know where the fish come slave-caught fish. from when we buy from Indonesia,” said Thai Union says its direct clients Poj of the Thai Frozen Foods Association. include Wal-Mart, which declined “We have no record. We don’t know if that an interview but said in an email fish is good or bad.” statement: “We care about the men and women in our supply chain, and we are he seafood the slaves on Benjina concerned about the ethical recruitment Tcatch may travel around the world, of workers.” but their own lives often end right here, in Wal-Mart described its work with this island village. several non-profits to end forced labor in A crude cemetery holds more than Thailand, including Project Issara, and 60 graves strangled by tall grasses referred the AP to Lisa Rende Taylor, and jungle vines, where small wooden its director. She noted that slave-caught markers are neatly labelled, some with seafood can slip into supply chains the falsified names of slaves and boats. undetected at several points, such as when Only their friends remember where they it is traded between boats or mingles with were laid to rest. clean fish at processing plants. She also In the past, former slave Hla Phyo said, confirmed that seafood sold at the Talay supervisors on ships simply tossed bodies Thai market — to where the AP followed into the sea to be devoured by sharks. But several trucks — can enter international after authorities and companies started supply chains. demanding that every man be accounted “Transactions throughout Thai for on the roster upon return, captains seafood supply chains are often not began stowing corpses alongside the fish

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 12 of 13 Dita Alangkara • AP Workers load fish onto a cargo ship bound for Thailand. Seafood caught by slaves mixes in with other fish at a number of sites in Thailand.

in ship freezers until they arrived back in tombs stacked on top of each other, Benjina, the slaves said. hopelessness overwhelms him. Lifting his knees as he stepped over the “I’m starting to feel like I will be in thick brush, Phyo searched for two grave Indonesia forever,” he said, wiping a tear markers overrun by weeds — friends he away. “I remember thinking when I was helped bury. digging, the only thing that awaits us It’s been five years since he himself here is death.” escaped the sea and struggled to survive on the island. Every night, his mind Esther Htusan contributed to this drifts back to his mother in Myanmar. He report from Benjina, Indonesia. Mason knows she must be getting old now, and reported from Samut Sakhon, Thailand; he desperately wants to return to her. Mendoza reported from Boston, Standing among so many anonymous Massachusetts.

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 13 of 13 [ VIDEO ]

2. VIDEO: US SUPPLY CHAIN TAINTED March 24, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgYgAVQG5lk&feature=youtu.be STORY 3

Dita Alangkara • AP Migrant fishermen wait for their departure to leave the compound of Pusaka Benjina Resources fishing company in Benjina, Aru Islands, Indonesia.

April 3, 2015 AP investigation prompts emergency rescue of 300 plus slaves

By ROBIN McDOWELL AND MARGIE MASON Associated Press

BENJINA, Indonesia (AP) island, hundreds of weathered former t first the men filtered in by twos and current slaves with long, greasy hair and threes, hearing whispers of a and tattoos streamed from their trawlers, A possible rescue. down the hills, even out of the jungle, Then, as the news rippled around the running toward what they had only

EMERGENCY RESCUE • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 1 of 6 dreamed of for years: Freedom. want to leave a single person behind.” “I will go see my parents. They haven’t About 320 men took up the offer. heard from me, and I haven’t heard from Even as a downpour started, some dashed them since I left,” said Win Win Ko, 42, through the rain. They sprinted back to beaming, his smile showing missing teeth. their boats, jumped over the rails and The captain on his fishing boat had kicked threw themselves through windows. out four teeth with his military boots, he They stuffed their meager belongings said, because Win was not moving fish fast into plastic bags, small suitcases and day enough from the deck to the hold below. packs, and rushed back to the dock, not The Burmese men were among wanting to be left behind. hundreds of migrant workers revealed in A small boat going from trawler to trawler an Associated Press investigation to have to pick up men was soon loaded down.

A small boat going from trawler to trawler to pick up [ men was soon loaded down. ] been lured or tricked into leaving their Throughout the day and until darkness countries and forced into catching fish for fell, they kept coming, more and more consumers around the world, including men, hugging, laughing, spilling onto the the United States. In response to the AP’s seven trawlers that were their ride out. findings, Indonesian government officials Even just before the trawlers pushed off visited the island village of Benjina on Benjina on the 24-hour trip to neighboring Friday and found brutal conditions, down Tual island, fishermen were still running to an “enforcer” paid to beat men up. They to the shore and clambering onto the offered immediate evacuation. vessels. Some were so sick and emaciated, The officials first gave the invitation they stumbled or had to be carried up the for protection just to a small group of men gang plank. who talked openly about their abuse. But While excitement and relief flooded then Asep Burhanuddin, director general of through many of the fishermen on the Indonesia’s Marine Resources and Fisheries dock, others looked scared and unsure Surveillance, said everybody was welcome, of what to expect next. Many complained including those hiding in the forest because they had no money to start over. they were too scared to go out. “I’m really happy, but I’m confused,” “They can all come,” he said. “We don’t said Nay Hla Win, 32. “I don’t know what

EMERGENCY RESCUE • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 2 of 6 Dita Alangkara • AP Migrant fishermen run to collect their belongings after being informed that they can leave.

my future is in Myanmar.” of how they were beaten and shocked Indonesian officials said security in with Taser-like devices at sea, forced to Benjina is limited, with only two Navy work almost nonstop without clean water officials stationed there to protect them. or proper food, paid little or nothing and The men will be housed at a government prevented from going home. compound while immigration is sorted There was essentially no way out: The out. Officials from Myanmar are set to island is so remote, there was no phone visit the islands next week and will assist service until a cell tower was installed last with bringing the men home and locating month, and it is a difficult place to reach in others. the best of circumstances. The dramatic rescue came after a The abuse went even further at the round of interviews Indonesian officials hands of the man known as “the enforcer.” held with the fishermen, where they This man, deeply feared and hated by the confirmed the abuse reported in the AP workers, was hired by their boat captains story, which included video of eight men to punish them for misbehavior, they said. locked in a cage and a slave graveyard. Saw Eail Htoo and Myo Naing were The men, mostly from Myanmar, talked among those he tormented. After three

EMERGENCY RESCUE • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 3 of 6 Dita Alangkara • AP

Above: Foreign fishermen are questioned by Indonesian officials.

Right: Burmese fishermen carry their belongings as they wait for their departure. months at sea working with only two to four hours of sleep a night, the two Burmese slaves just wanted to rest. They fell asleep on the deck. Their Thai captain decided to make an example of them, they said. So the two were driven by motorbike to a hill above thin with a military-style haircut. “I kept the port. They were handcuffed together thinking, if I was at home, this wouldn’t and placed in front of an Indonesian flag. be happening.” Then they were punched in the face and The findings documented by kicked until they collapsed into the dirt, Indonesian officials and the AP came in they said, blood oozing from their ripped stark contrast to what a Thai delegation faces. reported from a visit to Benjina earlier Even then, the enforcer would not this week to find trafficked Thai nationals. stop. They denied mistreatment on the boats “He kept kicking me,” said Naing, rail- and said the crews were all Thai, even

EMERGENCY RESCUE • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 4 of 6 though the AP found many migrant could be as many as 4,000 foreign men, workers from other countries are issued many trafficked or enslaved, who are fake documents with Thai names and stranded on islands surrounding Benjina addresses. following a fishing moratorium called “We examined the boats and the by the Indonesian Fisheries Ministry crews, and the result is most of the crews to crack down on poaching. Indonesia are happy and a few of them are sick has some of the world’s richest fishing and willing to go home,” said Thai police grounds, and the government estimates Lt. Gen. Saritchai Anekwiang, who was billions of dollars in seafood are stolen leading the delegation. “Generally, the from its waters by foreign crews every boat conditions are good.” year. Thailand, the world’s third-largest Three-quarters of the more than 320 seafood exporter, has been under further migrant workers who left the island on pressure to clean up its industry since the Friday were Burmese, but about 50 from AP tracked slave-caught seafood out of the country refused to go, saying they had

There could be as many as 4,000 foreign men ... who are stranded on islands surrounding Benjina [ following a fishing moratorium. ]

Benjina by satellite and linked it to the not received their salaries and did not supply chains of some of America’s largest want leave without money. supermarkets and retailers. The U.S. State Some were also from Cambodia and Department said Friday that it is pressing Laos. A few Thais were allowed to board Myanmar to quickly repatriate the men. the boats, but the Indonesians said Thai U.S. retailers also called for action and nationals could stay on Benjina more commended Indonesian officials. safely, since Thai captains were less likely “We don’t condone human trafficking to abuse them. in the supply chain, and we applaud the “I expected to evacuate all of them, government’s work to end this abuse. but I did not expect it this soon,” said Our hearts go out to these men, and we Ida Kusuma, one of the leaders of the wish them well on their journeys home,” Fisheries Ministry delegation. “But I think said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Marilee it’s good.” McInnis. Police are investigating in Benjina and Last week, the International will decide whether to prosecute those Organization for Migration said there involved in abuse, said Kedo Arya, head

EMERGENCY RESCUE • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 5 of 6 Dita Alangkara • AP Burmese fishermen hug each other as they wait to leave the compound of Pusaka Benjina Resources fishing company in Benjina, Aru Islands, Indonesia, Friday, April 3, 2015. of Maluku province prosecutor’s office. The same trawlers where the fishermen The Indonesian officials were told “the had suffered years of abuse were heading enforcer” was being detained. back to sea. This time crowded with free For those like Naing, who recalled men full of hope. being tortured, beaten and locked in a room for a month and 17 days for simply Mason reported from Jakarta, falling asleep, the thought of finally leaving Indonesia. AP writer Ali Kotarumalos the island was impossible to believe. contributed to this report from “Is it real that we are going home?” he Jakarta. AP writers Bradley Klapper in asked. Washington D.C. and Martha Mendoza A firework soon shot off from one of the in San Jose, California, contributed to boats, signaling it was indeed time to go. this story.

EMERGENCY RESCUE • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 6 of 6 STORY 4

April 22, 2015 US lets in Thai fish caught by slaves despite law

By MARTHA MENDOZA Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) at a congressional hearing Wednesday, n its first report on trafficking in light of an AP investigation that found around the world, the U.S. criticized hundreds of men beaten, starved, forced IThailand as a hub for labor abuse. Yet to work with little or no pay and even held 14 years later, seafood caught by slaves on in a cage on the remote island village of Thai boats is still slipping into the supply Benjina. While officials at federal agencies chains of major American stores and would not directly answer why the law and supermarkets. sanctions are not applied, they pointed The U.S. has not enforced a law banning out that the U.S. State Department last the import of goods made with forced year blacklisted Thailand as among the labor since 2000 because of significant worst offenders in its report on trafficking loopholes, The Associated Press has in people worldwide. found. It has also spared Thailand from Phil Robertson, deputy director of sanctions slapped on other countries with Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, said weak records in human trafficking because the plight of about 4,000 forced laborers in of a complex political relationship that Thailand’s seafood industry can no longer includes cooperation against . go unheeded. Many are migrant workers The question of how to deal with from Myanmar and other countries who Thailand and labor abuse will come up were forced to work on Thai boats in

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 1 of 6 Dita Alangkara • AP A security guard talks to detainees inside a cell at the compound of a fishing company in Benjina, Indonesia. The imprisoned men were considered slaves who might run away.

Indonesian waters. is the only word that I can find — but our “There have been problems with condition is worse than slavery,” he said. systematic and pervasive human “On behalf of all the fishermen here, I trafficking in Thailand’s fishing fleets for request to the congressmen that the U.S. more than a decade, but Washington has stop buying all fish from Thailand. ... This evidently considered it too hard to find fish, we caught it with our blood and sweat, out exactly what was happening and is but we don’t get a single benefit from it.” not taking action to stop it,” he said. “No The AP investigation tracked fish one can claim ignorance anymore. This caught by slaves to the supply chains of is a test case for Washington as much as large food sellers such as Wal-Mart, Sysco Bangkok.” and Kroger, as well as popular brands Hlaing Min, a 32-year-old migrant of canned pet food such as Fancy Feast, fisherman from Myanmar who worked Meow Mix and Iams. The companies around the clock for more than two years all said they strongly condemn labor before he ran away, also begged the U.S. abuse and are taking steps to prevent it. for help. While some human rights advocates say “Basically, we are slaves — and slavery boycotts are effective, many U.S. seafood

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 2 of 6 companies say cutting off all imports from to work 14-hour days for low wages. The an entire country means they no longer order was revoked in 2001, after further have any power to bring about change. review found labor abuse was no longer a During a recent visit to Jakarta, State problem at the company. Department Undersecretary Catherine A. Detention orders that remain in place Novelli was asked what the U.S. would can have mixed results. now do. In 1999, Customs blocked hand-rolled “I’m sure that your public would be unfiltered cigarettes from the Mangalore concerned that the fish that they ate came Ganesh Beedie Works in India, suspecting from a slave,” said an Indonesian reporter. child labor. However, the AP found that

To start an investigation, [ Customs needs to receive a petition. ]

Novelli’s response was quick. Mangalore Ganesh has sent 11 large “In the United States we actually shipments of the cigarettes to Beedies have a law that it is illegal to import any LLC of Kissimee, Florida, over the past product that is made with forced labor or four years through the ports of New York, slave labor, and that includes fish,” she Miami and Savannah, Georgia. Beedies said. “To the extent that we can trace ... LLC said the cigarettes go straight from where the fish are coming from, we won’t the U.S. ports to a bonded warehouse, and allow fish to come into the United States are then exported outside the country. that has been produced with forced labor To start an investigation, Customs or slavery.” needs to receive a petition from anyone However, the Tariff Act of 1930, which — a business, an agency, even a non- gives Customs and Border Protection the citizen — showing “reasonably but not authority to seize shipments where forced conclusively” that imports were made labor is suspected and block further at least in part with forced labor. But imports, has been used only 39 times in spokesman Michael Friel said that in the 85 years. In 11 cases, the orders detaining last four years, Customs has received shipments were later revoked. “only a handful of petitions,” and none The most recent case dates back to has pointed to seafood from Thailand. 2000, when Customs stopped clothing The most recent petition was filed two from Mongolian firm Dong Fang Guo Ji years ago by a non-profit against cotton in based on evidence that factory managers Uzbekistan. forced employees, including children, “These cases often involve numerous

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 3 of 6 Dita Alangkara • AP Workers in Benjina, Indonesia, load fish into a cargo ship bound for Thailand. Seafood caught by slaves mixes in with other fish at a number of sites in Thailand, including processing plants. allegations that require extensive agency caught on the high seas was brought in by investigation and fact-finding,” he said. a slave,” he said. Experts also point to two gaping The U.S. response to Thailand is also loopholes in the law. Goods made with shaped by political considerations. forced labor must be allowed into the For years, the State Department U.S. if consumer demand cannot be has put Thailand on the watchlist in its met without them. And it’s hard, if not annual trafficking report, saying the Thai impossible, to prove fish in a particular government has made efforts to stop labor container is tainted, because different abuse. But last year, after several waivers, batches generally mix together at it dropped Thailand for the first time to processing plants. the lowest rank, mentioning forced labor Former Justice Department attorney in the seafood industry. Countries with Jim Rubin said Customs can’t stop the same ranking, such as Cuba, Iran and trafficked goods without the help of other North Korea, faced full sanctions, and federal agencies to investigate overseas. foreign aid was withheld. Others, like “You can’t expect a Customs guy at Sudan, Syria and Zimbabwe, faced partial the border to know that a can of salmon sanctions.

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 4 of 6 Thailand did not: U.S. taxpayers CIA interrogations in 2002. And in 2003, provided $18.5 million in foreign aid to a senior al-Qaida operative was arrested the country last year. outside Bangkok after more than 200 “If Thailand was North Korea or Iran, people died in a Bali nightclub bombing. they’d be treated differently,” said Josh The U.S. also wants strong relations Kurlantzick, a fellow for Southeast Asia at with Thailand as a counterweight to the Council on Foreign Relations. “They’re , whose influence is growing in the a key ally and we have a long relationship region. with them.” Along with the State Department, In the 1960s and ‘70s, when the U.S. the Labor Department has also flagged needed Thailand’s help in the seafood from Thailand year after year as War, the country “got a pass on everything,” produced by forced labor in violation of

Along with the State Department, the Labor Department has also flagged seafood [ from Thailand year after year. ]

Kurlantzick said. Then Thailand’s record international standards. Department of on human rights gradually improved, Homeland Security senior policy adviser along with its economy. That changed Kenneth Kennedy referred to discussions dramatically in 2006, when the military for an action plan on labor abuse in first ousted the prime minister. It Thailand that began in the fall. declared martial law and then overtook “I think the U.S. government recently the government again last year. has realized that we need to pay attention In response, the U.S. condemned to this area,” he said. “We need to address the current regime and has suspended conditions that have been reported for $4.7 million in military funding to the years and that are in the public minds and Southeast Asian nation. in the public eye very much.” However, the U.S. still includes Thailand itself says it is tackling labor Thailand in military exercises, and the abuse. In 2003, the country launched country is considered a critical ally a national campaign against criminal against terrorism. A U.S. Senate report organizations, including traffickers. In in December detailed how top al-Qaida 2008, it adopted a new anti-human suspect Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded, trafficking law. And last month, the new slammed into a wall and isolated at a junta government cited the fight against secret safe house in Thailand as part of trafficking as a national priority.

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 5 of 6 “This government is determined said Harvard University professor John and committed to solving the human Ruggie, who wrote the principles, known trafficking issues, not by words but by as the “Ruggie Framework,” as a U.N. actions,” deputy government spokesman special representative. Also, Thailand’s Maj. Gen. Sansern Kaewkamnerd said. seafood industry, with annual exports of “We are serious in prosecuting every about $7 billion, is big business for the individual involved in the network, country and depends on migrant labor. from the boats’ captains to government Migrant fishermen rescued from officials.” Benjina were bewildered to learn that However, a Thai police general on a their abuse has been an open secret for fact-finding mission earlier this month years. Maung Htwe, a 26-year-old migrant to Benjina declared conditions were worker from Myanmar, did backbreaking good and workers “happy.” A day later, work for Thai captains in Indonesian Indonesian authorities rescued more waters over seven years, earning less than than 320 abused fishermen from the $5 a day, if he was lucky. island village, and the number of workers “Sometimes I’m really angry. It’s waiting to be sent home has since risen to so painful. Why was I sold and taken to more than 560. Indonesia?” asked Htwe, who was among Under United Nations principles the workers rescued from Benjina. “If adopted in 2011, governments must people already knew the story, then they protect against human rights abuses should have helped us and taken action.” by third parties. However, some local authorities in Thailand are themselves AP reporter Thanyarat Doksone deeply implicated in such practices, contributed from Thailand.

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • AP Investigation | ASSOCIATED PRESS 6 of 6 [ INTERACTIVE ]

5. 22-YEARS A SLAVE June 29, 2015: One man’s homecoming after he lost more than 2 decades. http://interactives.ap.org/2015/seafood-from-slaves/?START=freedom STORY 6

July 27, 2015 AP Exclusive: AP tracks slave boats to Papua New Guinea

By ROBIN McDOWELL, MARTHA MENDOZA and MARGIE MASON Associated Press

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) least some of them ended up in a narrow, rom space, the fishing boats are dangerous strait nearly 1,000 miles away. just little white specks floating in a The proof comes from accounts from F vast stretch of blue water off Papua recently returned slaves, satellite beacon New Guinea. But zoom in and there’s the tracking, government records, interviews critical evidence: Two trawlers loading with business insiders and fishing licenses. slave-caught seafood onto a massive The location is also confirmed in images refrigerated cargo ship. from space taken by one of the world’s The trawlers fled a slave island in highest resolution satellite cameras, upon Indonesia with captives of a brutal the AP’s request. Southeast Asian trafficking ring whose The skippers have changed their ships’ catch reaches the United States. names and flags to evade authorities, but Hundreds of men were freed after they hiding is easy in the world’s broad oceans. were discovered there earlier this year, Traffickers operate with impunity across but 34 boats loaded with workers left for boundaries as fluid as the waters. Laws new fishing grounds before help arrived — are few and hardly enforced. And depleted they remain missing. fish stocks have pushed boats farther out After a four-month investigation, into seas that are seldom even glimpsed, The Associated Press has found that at let alone governed.

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • Papua New Guinea | ASSOCIATED PRESS 1 of 6 Gemunu Amarasinghe • AP Former Burmese slave fishermen Kaung Htet Wai, left, and Lin Lin, second left, point to a satellite image of a refrigerated cargo ship owned by Silver Sea Fishery Co., in waters off Papua New Guinea.

This lack of regulation means that describing fishing in the poor island even with the men located, bringing them nation. “Fishermen could die anytime, to safety may prove elusive. but the captains would not care. If they Officials from Papua New Guinea die, they will just be thrown away.” working with the International Organization He said he and his crewmembers still for Migration said they were not aware of don’t know why they were sent home last human trafficking cases in the area but are month, when their trawler returned to the investigating. Numerous other agencies — same port in Thailand from which they including Interpol, the United Nations and were originally trafficked. the U.S. State and Defense departments — As the appetite for cheap fish told the AP they don’t have the authority to worldwide grows, so does the demand for get involved. men who are paid little or nothing to catch A handful of former slaves who recently it. Thailand’s $7 billion annual seafood made it home to Myanmar said hundreds export industry is built on the backs of of men remain unaccounted for. poor people from its own country and “Papua New Guinea can be a lawless migrants from Myanmar, Cambodia and place,” said Lin Lin, one of the returnees, Laos who are sold, kidnapped and tricked

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • Papua New Guinea | ASSOCIATED PRESS 2 of 6 onto trawlers. to bring the boats back for prosecution. In November, the AP found hundreds of “They have to be responsible for what’s such forced laborers on the remote island happened,” said Fisheries Minister Susi village of Benjina in eastern Indonesia — Pudjiastuti. some in a cage, others on boats and more The disappearing act can start with a than 60 buried in a graveyard. To date, bucket of paint. the reporting has prompted the rescue Kaung Htet Wai, 25, said his crewmates and repatriation of more than 800 men, nailed a new name and number over the many of whom said they were abused or old one — Antasena 331 — and hoisted witnessed others being beaten, or in some a different country’s flag: the red, black

Captains repainted and renumbered other boats, and some kept flags from as many as [ four different countries in their hulls. ] cases even killed. and yellow of Papua New Guinea. Wai Reporters followed the slave-caught said his trawler did not dock for several fish back to Thailand and linked it to the months, and loaded many types of supply chains of major U.S. food sellers, seafood, including mackerel, shrimp such as Wal-Mart, Sysco and Kroger, and and shark, onto refrigerated cargo ships. American pet food companies, including Captains also repainted and renumbered Fancy Feast, Meow Mix and Iams. The other boats, and some kept flags from as businesses have all said they strongly many as four different countries in their condemn labor abuse and vowed to take hulls, according to former slaves and steps to prevent it. investigators. In April, a week after the AP story was The flag change protects rogue boats published, the Indonesian government because typically the flagged states, not launched a criminal inquiry. It was the host country, set their rules, said Mark already clamping down on illegal fishing Lagon, president of the Freedom House nationwide with a moratorium on all in Washington D.C. and former U.S. foreign boats. Officials rescued hundreds ambassador at large to combat human on the spot but they discovered that a third trafficking. Laws in general are weaker for of the company’s 90 trawlers had already fishing trawlers than other vessels, as is left — each with 15 to 20 migrants on overall monitoring, he noted, creating a board. The Indonesian government wants “black hole of governance.”

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • Papua New Guinea | ASSOCIATED PRESS 3 of 6 Brennan Linsley • AP DigitalGlobe imagery analyst Micah Farfour, shows a high-resolution satellite photograph taken of trawlers in Papua New Guinea loading slave-caught seafood onto Silver Sea 2.

As the boats hid, Indonesian to the Silver Sea 2 — the same transport investigators discovered that the company ship identified earlier this month in the listed as their operator, Pusaka Benjina satellite photo off Papua New Guinea. Resources, was really a venture between Pusaka Benjina manager Hermanwir seafood industry tycoons and businessmen Martino, among seven people arrested on from Thailand and Indonesia. human trafficking charges, has said his Financial records going back seven company did nothing wrong. Silver Sea years reveal Pusaka Benjina’s lucrative Fishery did not answer calls. business with a shipping company, Silver Photographs from the sky helped the Sea Fishery Co. The trawlers crewed by AP actually catch the Silver Sea 2 in the slaves brought fish to Benjina, where it act of doing business with the trawlers. was loaded onto Silver Sea cargo ships Over the past few months, satellite heading for Thailand. beacons show, Silver Sea cargo ships had In a typical month, Silver Sea was been shuttling regularly between Thailand invoiced about $500,000 for loads of and Papua New Guinea. They slowed to seafood. One month the firm was billed a crawl or halted completely, apparently $1.6 million, with a third of that charged as they were being loaded with fish, in a

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • Papua New Guinea | ASSOCIATED PRESS 4 of 6 crooked strait known as the dogleg. Gisa Komangin, from Papua New Analysts at SkyTruth, a West Virginia Guinea’s National Fisheries Authority, remote sensing and digital mapping firm, said that until now their focus has been identified the Silver Sea 2 by its signals. on illegal fishing in the dogleg, and that a However, they warned that getting moratorium on all foreign fishing there is photographic evidence of it collecting fish planned for the end of the month to crack from one of the trawlers that fled Benjina down on poaching. would be next to impossible. “When you are talking about illegal Nonetheless, two weeks ago, fishing,” he said, “you are also talking DigitalGlobe, a Colorado-based commercial about human smuggling.” vendor of space imagery, maneuvered a The question now is if the men will satellite at the request of the AP toward be rescued. Many governments lack the

The cargo reefer struck experts as suspicious because it had turned off its [ locator beacon for almost two days ] coordinates of the Silver Sea 2, which had resources — or the will — to implement dropped anchor off Papua New Guinea. The a patchwork of outdated maritime rules, cargo reefer struck experts as suspicious some written more than a century ago. because it had turned off its locator beacon Kenneth Kennedy, a senior policy adviser for almost two days, possibly while picking for the U.S. Department of Homeland up seafood. Security, said international fishing The satellite whizzed over Papua agreements on sustainability, pollution New Guinea at 17,000 mph, 380 miles and labor are needed, and those that do up. Within a day, DigitalGlobe analysts exist often go unenforced. spotted a high-resolution shot of a ship “If all these corporations, or ships, matching the Silver Sea 2 right down to are ignoring these things put in place for the docking ropes and open cargo holds, the future of humanity, then what are we with boats identical to those from Benjina doing?” he asked. “We’re just spinning nestled alongside, apparently offloading our wheels.” fish. Back in a dusty slum in Myanmar, CEO Jeff Tarr said this was the first relatives of the slaves still missing are time the technology had been used to desperate. One mother, Ohn Myint, went capture human trafficking live: “You can’t to the airport three times as men rescued hide from space.” from Benjina came home — hoping her

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • Papua New Guinea | ASSOCIATED PRESS 5 of 6 19-year-old son, Myo Ko Ko, would come out of the terminal. But every time, she left alone, a little more drained of hope. “I am missing my son so much, each and every hour,” she said. “I can only pray for him. I just think that only God can save him.”

McDowell reported from , Myanmar; Mendoza from Westminster, Colorado; and Mason from Tual, Indonesia. Esther Htusan contributed to this report from Yangon.

SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES • Papua New Guinea | ASSOCIATED PRESS 6 of 6 STORY 7

Sept. 17, 2015 More than 2,000 enslaved fishermen rescued in 6 months

By ESTHER HTUSAN and MARGIE MASON Associated Press

AMBON, Indonesia (AP) with his family after a broker lured him ore than 2,000 fishermen to Thailand five years ago. Instead of have been rescued this year working in construction, as promised, he Mfrom brutal conditions at sea, was sold onto a fishing boat and taken to liberated as a result of an Associated Indonesia. “I’m their only son. They’re Press investigation into seafood brought going to cry so hard when they see me.” to the U.S. from a slave island in eastern The reunion he envisions has played Indonesia. out hundreds of times since March, after Dozens of Burmese men in the bustling the AP tracked fish — caught by men who port town of Ambon were the latest were savagely beaten and caged — to to go home, some more than a decade the supply chains of some of America’s after being trafficked onto Thai trawlers. biggest food sellers, such as Wal-Mart, Grabbing one another’s hands, the men Sysco and Kroger, and popular brands of walked together toward buses last week. canned pet food like Fancy Feast, Meow As they pulled away for the airport, some Mix and Iams. It can turn up as calamari of those still waiting their turn to go home at fine restaurants, as imitation crab in a cheered, throwing their arms in the air. sushi roll or as packages of frozen snapper “I’m sure my parents think I’m dead,” relabeled with store brands that land on said Tin Lin Tun, 25, who lost contact our dinner tables. The U.S. companies

ENSLAVED FISHERMEN • Rescued | ASSOCIATED PRESS 1 of 5 have all said they strongly condemn labor avoiding human trafficking allegations. abuse and are taking steps to prevent it. “We’ve never seen a rescue on this In response, a multimillion-dollar scale before,” said Lisa Rende Taylor, an Thai-Indonesian fishing business has anti-trafficking expert formerly with the been shut down, at least nine people United Nations who now heads the anti- have been arrested and two fishing cargo slavery nonprofit Project Issara. “They vessels have been seized. In the U.S., deserve compensation and justice.” importers have demanded change, three Many experts believe the most class-action lawsuits are underway, new effective pressure for change can come laws have been introduced and the Obama from consumers, whose hunger for cheap administration is pushing exporters to seafood is helping fuel the massive labor clean up their labor practices. The AP’s abuses. Southeast Asia’s fishing industry

The largest impact, by far, has been the rescue of some of the most desperate [ and isolated people in the world. ] work was entered into the congressional is dominated by Thailand, which earns $7 record for a hearing, and is scheduled to billion annually in exports. The business be brought up for discussion again later relies on tens of thousands of poor migrant this month. laborers, mainly from neighboring The largest impact, by far, has been the Southeast Asian countries. They often are rescue of some of the most desperate and tricked, sold or kidnapped and put onto isolated people in the world. More than boats that are commonly sent to distant 2,000 men from Myanmar, Thailand, foreign waters to poach fish. Cambodia and Laos have been identified A year-long investigation led the AP or repatriated since the AP’s initial to the island village of Benjina, part of story ran, according to the International Indonesia’s Maluku chain about 400 Organization for Migration and foreign miles north of Australia. There, workers ministries. The tally includes eight considered runaway risks were padlocked fishermen trafficked aboard a Thai cargo behind the rusty bars of a cage. ship seized in neighboring Papua New Men in Benjina — both those stuck Guinea. on Thai fishing boats and others who And those returnee figures don’t tell had escaped into the jungle — were the the whole story: Hundreds more have been first to go home when rescues led by the quietly sent home by their companies, Indonesian government began in early

ENSLAVED FISHERMEN • Rescued | ASSOCIATED PRESS 2 of 5 Robin McDowell • AP A Myanmar official cross-checks names at a transit center in Yangon, Myanmar. More than 2,000 fishermen have been rescued this year.

April. Since then, hundreds more have boat into the water,” wrote Ye Aung, 32, been identified and repatriated from of Myanmar. “The captain said there was neighboring islands. Many of those leaving no need to search, he will float by himself recently from Ambon were handed cash later.” payments by company officials, but they Another man, 18-year-old Than Min said the money was a fraction of what they Oo, said he was not paid and wrote simply: were owed. “Please help me.” An AP survey of almost 400 men For many, the return home is underscores the horrific conditions bittersweet. Parents collapse in tears upon fishing slaves faced. Many described being seeing their sons, and some men meet whipped with stingray tails, deprived of siblings born after they left. But almost all food and water and forced to work for come back empty-handed, struggle to find years without pay. More than 20 percent jobs and feel they are yet another burden said they were beaten, 30 percent said to their extremely poor families. At least they saw someone else beaten and 12 one crowd-sourcing site, set up by Anti- percent said they saw a person die. Slavery International, is aimed at helping “My colleague, Chit Oo, fell from the them.

ENSLAVED FISHERMEN • Rescued | ASSOCIATED PRESS 3 of 5 A study by the London School of they’d say they didn’t have it ... but then Hygiene and Tropical Medicine earlier they’d go to nightclubs, brothels and bars, this year, based on interviews with over drinking expensive alcohol.” 1,000 trafficking survivors from different Like many of the men rescued from industries, found half of those returning Ambon, Tun Lin had been working for PT from slavery at sea suffered from Mabiru Industries, where operations were depression and around 40 percent from halted several months ago as authorities post-traumatic stress disorder or anxiety. investigated trafficking and illegal fishing Those men were not connected to the in the industry there. Mabiru, one of more Benjina cases. than a dozen fishing, processing and cold Many bear physical scars as well. storage firms in Ambon, sold packages of Tun Lin, who returned to Myanmar yellowfin tuna largely headed for Japanese

“Boat leaders” were assigned to act as enforcers, beating up fishermen who weren’t [ working fast enough. ] last week, held up his right hand: a stump markets, and also shipped to the United with just a thumb. States. The company is shuttered and its He said one finger was ripped off while managers could not be reached. he tried to wrangle an unwieldy net on Florida-based South Pacific Specialties, the deck of his boat, and the other three which distributes to supermarket chains, were crushed beyond saving. He was restaurants and food groups, received a taken by refrigerated cargo delivery ship shipping container loaded with frozen to Thailand, where the remaining digits tuna from Mabiru in February. Managing were surgically removed. Four days later, partner Francisco Pinto told the AP his he said, he was put back on a ship bound company had once rented out Mabiru’s for Indonesia, where he fished for the next facilities in Ambon, bought tuna from three years. private artisanal fishermen, and hired its “There were some good captains, own workers for filleting and processing but there were a lot of bad ones,” the fish. Pinto said he has spent the past 33-year-old said, his eyes filling with six weeks in Indonesia meeting and tears as he described how “boat leaders” observing fish suppliers because American were assigned to act as enforcers, beating customers are increasingly demanding up fishermen who weren’t working fast fair treatment for workers. enough. “When we asked for our money, Amid the increased scrutiny, some have

ENSLAVED FISHERMEN • Rescued | ASSOCIATED PRESS 4 of 5 Robin McDowell • AP Former slave-fisherman Tun Lin said one finger was ripped off while trying to wrangle an unwieldy net on the deck of his boat in eastern Indonesia and the other three were crushed beyond saving. taken legal action. In the past month, three industry is a real-life horror story,” said separate class-action lawsuits have been Congressman Chris Smith, R-N.J., who is filed naming Mars Inc., IAMS Co., Proctor among those sponsoring new legislation. & Gamble, Nestle USA Inc., Nestle Purina “It’s no longer acceptable for companies Petcare Co. and Costco, accusing them of to deny responsibility ... not when people having seafood supply chains tainted with are kept in cages, not when people are slave labor. Ashley Klann, a spokeswoman made to work like animals for decades to for the Seattle-based law firm behind pad some company’s bottom line.” several of the cases, said the litigation “came as a result of AP’s reporting.” AP writer Robin McDowell contributed Even with the increased global to this report from Yangon, Myanmar, attention, hundreds of thousands of men and AP National Writer Martha still are forced to work in the seafood Mendoza contributed from Washington, industry. D.C., and California. Mason reported “Slavery in Southeast Asia’s fishing from Jakarta, Indonesia.

ENSLAVED FISHERMEN • Rescued | ASSOCIATED PRESS 5 of 5 STORY 8

December 14, 2015 AP: Global supermarkets selling shrimp peeled by slaves

By MARGIE MASON, ROBIN McDOWELL, MARTHA MENDOZA and ESTHER HTUSAN Associated Press

SAMUT SAKHON, Thailand (AP) pay. Always, someone was watching. very morning at 2 a.m., they heard No names were ever used, only a kick on the door and a threat: numbers given by their boss — Tin Nyo EGet up or get beaten. For the next Win was No. 31. 16 hours, No. 31 and his wife stood in the Pervasive human trafficking has factory that owned them with their aching helped turn Thailand into one of the hands in ice water. They ripped the guts, world’s biggest shrimp providers. Despite heads, tails and shells off shrimp bound repeated promises by businesses and for overseas markets, including grocery government to clean up the country’s stores and all-you-can-eat buffets across $7 billion seafood export industry, an the United States. Associated Press investigation has found After being sold to the Gig Peeling shrimp peeled by modern-day slaves is Factory, they were at the mercy of their reaching the U.S., Europe and Asia. Thai bosses, trapped with nearly 100 The problem is fueled by corruption other Burmese migrants. Children worked and complicity among police and alongside them, including a girl so tiny authorities. Arrests and prosecutions are she had to stand on a stool to reach the rare. Raids can end up sending migrants peeling table. Some had been there for without proper paperwork to jail, while months, even years, getting little or no owners go unpunished.

PEELED BY SLAVES • Shrimp | ASSOCIATED PRESS 1 of 13 Dita Alangkara • AP Children and teenagers sit together to be registered by officials during a raid on a shrimp shed in Samut Sakhon, Thailand. Abuse is common in Samut Sakhon, which attracts workers from some of the world’s poorest countries.

Sakhon, a port town an hour outside Editor’s Note: More than 2,000 trapped Bangkok. The AP found one factory that fishermen have been freed this year as was enslaving dozens of workers, and a result of an ongoing Associated Press runaway migrants led rights groups to investigative series into slavery in the the Gig shed and a third facility. All three Thai seafood industry. The reports also sheds held 50 to 100 people each, many have led to a dozen arrests, millions of locked inside. dollars’ worth of seizures and proposals As Tin Nyo Win soon found out for for new federal laws. himself, there’s no easy escape. One woman had been working at Gig for eight Hundreds of shrimp peeling sheds are years. Another man ended up peeling hidden in plain sight on residential streets shrimp there after breaking free from an or behind walls with no signs in Samut equally brutal factory.

PEELED BY SLAVES • Shrimp | ASSOCIATED PRESS 2 of 13 “I was shocked after working there 50 states and found shrimp products from a while, and I realized there was no way supply chains tainted with forced labor. out,” said Tin Nyo Win, 22, who has a baby European and Asian import and face and teeth stained red from chewing export records are confidential, but the betel nut. Thai companies receiving shrimp tracked “I told my wife, ‘We’re in real trouble. by the AP all say they ship to Europe and If something ends up going wrong, we’re Asia as well. going to die.’” The businesses that responded Last month, AP journalists followed condemned the practices that lead to and filmed trucks loaded with freshly these conditions. Many said they were peeled shrimp from the Gig shed to major launching investigations when told their

Entire families labored side-by-side at rows of stainless steel counters piled high [ with tubs of shrimp. ]

Thai exporting companies and then, using supply chains were linked to people held U.S. customs records and Thai industry against their will in sheds like the Gig reports, tracked it globally. They also factory, which sat behind a gate off a busy traced similar connections from another street, between railroad tracks and a river. factory raided six months earlier, and Inside the large warehouse, toilets interviewed more than two dozen workers overflowed with feces, and the putrid from both sites. smell of raw sewage wafted from an open U.S. customs records show the shrimp gutter just outside the work area. Young made its way into the supply chains of children ran barefoot through suffocating major U.S. food stores and retailers such dorm rooms. Entire families labored side- as Wal-Mart, Kroger, Whole Foods, Dollar by-side at rows of stainless steel counters General and Petco, along with restaurants piled high with tubs of shrimp. such as Red Lobster and Olive Garden. Tin Nyo Win and his wife, Mi San, It also entered the supply chains of were cursed for not peeling fast enough some of America’s best-known seafood and called “cows” and “buffalos.” They brands and pet foods, including Chicken were allowed to go outside for food only of the Sea and Fancy Feast, which are if one of them stayed behind as insurance sold in grocery stores from Safeway and against running away. Schnucks to Piggly Wiggly and Albertsons. But escaping was all they could think AP reporters went to supermarkets in all about.

PEELED BY SLAVES • Shrimp | ASSOCIATED PRESS 3 of 13 hrimp is the most-loved seafood in dead fish. Refrigerated trucks with seafood Sthe U.S., with Americans downing logos barrel down streets straddled by 1.3 billion pounds every year, or about huge processing plants. Just as ubiquitous 4 pounds per person. Once a luxury are the small pickups loaded with migrant reserved for special occasions, it became workers from neighboring Cambodia, cheap enough for stir-fries and scampis Laos and Myanmar being taken to gut, when Asian farmers started growing it fillet, de-vein and peel the seafood that in ponds three decades ago. Thailand fuels this town’s economy. quickly dominated the market and now Abuse is common in Samut Sakhon. An sends nearly half of its supply to the U.S. International Labor Organization report The Southeast Asian country is one estimated 10,000 migrant children aged of the worst human trafficking hubs on 13 to 15 work in the city. Another U.N. earth. It has been blacklisted for the past agency study found nearly 60 percent of two years by the U.S. State Department, Burmese laborers toiling in its seafood which cited complicity by Thai officials. The issued a warning earlier this year that tripled seafood import tariffs, and is expected to decide next month whether to impose an outright ban. Consumers enjoy the convenience of dumping shrimp straight from freezer to skillet, the result of labor-intensive peeling and cleaning. Unable to keep up with demand, exporters get their supply from peeling sheds that are sometimes nothing more than crude garages adjacent to the boss’s house. Supply chains are so complicated that, on any given day, buyers may not know exactly where the shrimp comes from. The Thai Frozen Foods Association lists about 50 registered shrimp sheds in the country. However, hundreds more operate in Samut Sakhon, the country’s Ross D. Franklin • AP Shrimp products from Thailand packaged under the main shrimp processing region. Here the name “Waterfront Bistro” at a Safeway grocery store humid air hangs thick with the smell of in Phoenix.

PEELED BY SLAVES • Shrimp | ASSOCIATED PRESS 4 of 13 processing industry were victims of forced their wages without explanation. After they labor. bought gloves and rubber boots, and paid Tin Nyo Win and his wife were taken monthly “cleaning fees” inside the trash- to the Gig Peeling Factory in July when strewn shed, almost nothing was left. they made the long drive from Myanmar Employees said they had to work even across the border, crammed so tightly into when they were ill. Seventeen children a truck with other workers that they could peeled alongside adults, sometimes barely breathe. Like many migrants, they crying, at stations where paint chipped off were lured from home by a broker with the walls and slick floors were eaten away promises of good-paying jobs, and came by briny water. without visas or work permits. Lunch breaks were only 15 minutes, After being sold to the Gig shed, the and migrants were yelled at for talking too

They were lured from home by a broker with promises of good-paying jobs, [ and came without visas or work permits. ] couple learned they would have to work off much. Several workers said a woman died what was considered their combined worth recently because she didn’t get proper — $830. It was an insurmountable debt. medical care for her asthma. Children Because they were illegal workers, the never went to school and began peeling owners constantly threatened to call police shrimp just an hour later than adults. to keep them in line. Even documented “We had to get up at 3 in the morning migrants were vulnerable because the and then start working continuously,” boss held onto identification papers so said Eae Hpaw, 16, whose arms were a they could not leave. patchwork of scars from infections and Under the U.S. government’s allergies caused by the shrimp. “We definition, forced labor and debt bondage stopped working around 7 in the evening. are considered slavery. We would take a shower and sleep. Then In the Gig shed, employees’ salaries we would start again.” were pegged to how fast their fingers could After being roughed up one night by a move. Tin Nyo Win and his wife peeled supervisor, five months into their captivity, about 175 pounds of shrimp for just $4 Tin Nyo Win and his wife decided they a day, less than half of what they were couldn’t take the threats anymore. promised. A female Thai manager, who “They would say, ‘There’s a gun in the slapped and cursed workers, often cut boss’s car and we’re going to come and

PEELED BY SLAVES • Shrimp | ASSOCIATED PRESS 5 of 13 Gemunu Amarasinghe • AP Workers carry boxes filled with iced shrimp at a seafood market. Thailand sends nearly half of its shrimp to the U.S. shoot you, and no one will know,’” he said. over five days to major Thai exporters. The next morning, the couple saw an One load pulled into N&N Foods, owned opportunity when the door wasn’t being by one of the world’s largest seafood watched. companies, Tokyo-based Maruha Nichiro They ran. Foods. A second drove to Okeanos Food, Less than 24 hours later, Tin Nyo Win’s a subsidiary of another leading global wife was captured at a market by the shed seafood supplier, Thai Union. Still more manager. He watched helplessly as she went to Kongphop Frozen Foods and The was dragged away by her hair, terrified for Siam Union Frozen Foods, which have her — and the baby they recently learned customers in the U.S., Canada, Europe, she was carrying. Asia and Australia. All the exporters and parent companies that responded said racking shipments from just the Gig they abhor human rights abuses. T Peeling Factory highlights how fast Shrimp can mix with different batches and far slave-peeled shrimp can travel. of seafood as it is packaged, branded and The AP followed trucks from the shed shipped. At that point, there’s no way to

PEELED BY SLAVES • Shrimp | ASSOCIATED PRESS 6 of 13 tell where any individual piece was peeled. “I want to eliminate this,” said Dirk Once it reaches American restaurants, Leuenberger, CEO of Aqua Star. “I think hospitals, universities and military chow it’s disgusting that it’s even remotely part halls, all the shrimp from those four Thai of my business.” processors is considered associated with Some, including Red Lobster, Whole slavery, according to United Nations and Foods and H-E-B Supermarkets, said they U.S. standards. were confident — based on assurances U.S. customs records linked the from their Thai supplier — that their exported shrimp to more than 40 U.S. particular shrimp was not associated brands, including popular names such with abusive factories. That Thai supplier as Sea Best, Waterfront Bistro and Aqua admits it hadn’t known where it was Star. The AP found shrimp products with getting all its shrimp and sent a note the same labels in more than 150 stores outlining corrective measures to U.S. across America — from Honolulu to New businesses demanding answers last week. York City to a tiny West Virginia town of “I am deeply disappointed that despite 179 people. The grocery store chains have our best efforts we have discovered this tens of thousands of U.S. outlets where potential instance of illegal labor practice millions of Americans shop. in our supply chain,” Thai Union CEO In addition, the Thai distributors Thiraphong Chansiri wrote. His statement state on their websites that they export acknowledged “that illicitly sourced to Europe and Asia, although specific product may have fraudulently entered records are confidential. AP reporters its supply chain” and confirmed a supplier in Germany, Italy, England and Ireland “was doing business with an unregistered researched shrimp in supermarkets pre-processor in violation of our code of and found several brands sourced from conduct.” Thailand. Those stores said the names of After AP brought its findings to dozens their Thai distributors are proprietary. of global retailers, Thai Union announced Royal Greenland — an importer whose it will bring all shrimp-processing in- shrimp was seen under store brands as a house by the end of the year and provide product from Thailand but has not been jobs to workers whose factories close linked to the sheds — said it now has as a result. It’s a significant step from shifted its sourcing to Ecuador. the industry leader whose international By all accounts, the work at the brands include John West in Britain, Petit Gig shed was off the books — and thus Navire in France and Mareblu in Italy; even businesses carefully tracking the shrimp from abusive factories in Thailand provenance of the shrimp called the AP’s has not been associated with them. findings a surprise. Susan Coppedge, the U.S. State

PEELED BY SLAVES • Shrimp | ASSOCIATED PRESS 7 of 13 Gemunu Amarasinghe • AP Female workers sort shrimp at a seafood market in Mahachai, Thailand.

Department’s new anti-trafficking enforce U.S. laws that ban importing ambassador, said problems persist goods produced by forced labor, citing an because brokers, boat captains and exception for items consumers can’t get seafood firms aren’t held accountable and from another source. Thai shrimp slips victims have no recourse. right through that loophole. “We have told Thailand to improve Thailand is not the only source of their anti-trafficking efforts, to increase slave-tainted seafood in the U.S., where their prosecutions, to provide services nearly 90 percent of shrimp is imported. to victims,” she said. She added that The State Department’s annual anti- American consumers “can speak through trafficking reports have tied such seafood their wallets and tell companies: ‘We don’t to 55 countries on six continents, including want to buy things made with slavery.’” major suppliers to the U.S. Earlier this The State Department has not year, the AP uncovered a slave island in slapped Thailand with sanctions applied Benjina, Indonesia, where hundreds of to other countries with similarly weak migrant fishermen were trafficked from human trafficking records because it is a Thailand and sometimes locked in a cage. strategically critical Southeast Asian ally. Last month, food giant Nestle disclosed And federal authorities say they can’t that its own Thai suppliers were abusing

PEELED BY SLAVES • Shrimp | ASSOCIATED PRESS 8 of 13 and enslaving workers and has vowed to processing factories and is working to force change. register undocumented migrant workers. Human trafficking in Thailand also “There have been some flaws in the stretches far beyond the seafood industry. laws, and we have been closing those Earlier this year, high-ranking officials gaps,” said M.L. Puntarik Smiti, the Thai were implicated in a smuggling syndicate Labor Ministry’s permanent secretary. involving tens of thousands of Rohingya “The government has made human Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar. trafficking a national agenda. The policy A crackdown came after dozens of victims is clear, and every department is working died in Thai jungle camps because they in the same direction. ... In the past, most were unable to pay ransoms. punishments focused on the laborers, but The junta military government has now more focus is put on punishing the singled out the country’s fisheries sector employers.” for reforms. It says it has passed new Police point to a new law that goes after laws to crack down on illegal activities officers involved in human trafficking, and aboard fishing boats and inside seafood- say rooting out corruption and complicity

Robin McDowell • AP Burmese shrimp shed worker Tin Nyo Win, left, and his wife, Mi San, stand in a jail cell after they were arrested in Samut Sakhon, Thailand.

PEELED BY SLAVES • Shrimp | ASSOCIATED PRESS 9 of 13 is a priority. Former employees told the AP they Critics argue, however, the changes had been locked inside and forced to work have been largely cosmetic. Former slaves long hours with no days off and little sleep. repeatedly described how police took The conditions they described inside them into custody and then sold them to were horrific: A woman eight months agents who trafficked them again into the pregnant miscarried on the shed floor and seafood industry. was forced to keep peeling for four days “There are laws and regulations, while hemorrhaging. An unconscious but they are being selectively enforced toddler was refused medical care after to benefit one side,” said Patima falling about 12 feet onto a concrete floor. Tungpuchayakul, manager of the Thai- Another pregnant woman escaped only to based nonprofit Labor Rights Promotion be tracked down, yanked into a car by her Network Foundation. “When you find hair and handcuffed to a fellow worker at there is a child working 16 hours a day and the factory.

“When you find there is a child working 16 hours a day and getting paid ($2.75) ... [ the government has to put a stop to this.” ] getting paid ($2.75) ... the government “Sometimes when we were working, has to put a stop to this.” the tears would run down our cheeks The peeling sheds that supply to major because it was so tiring we couldn’t bear Thai seafood companies are supposed to it,” said the worker who ran away. His be certified and inspected, but the stamp name is being withheld due to concerns of approval does not always prevent about his safety. abuses. “We were crying, but we kept peeling A factory just a few miles away from shrimp,” he said. “We couldn’t rest. ... Tin Nyo Win’s shed provided shrimp to I think people are guilty if they eat the companies including Thai Union; a half- shrimp that we peeled like slaves.” dozen former workers said a Thai Union Shrimp from that factory entered the employee visited the shed every day. A supply chains of Thai Union, which, in the runaway worker alerted a local migrant six months prior to the bust, shipped 15 labor group about slave-like conditions million pounds of frozen shrimp to dozens there after being brutally beaten across of U.S. companies, customs records show. his ear and throat with iron chains. Police Those included Red Lobster and Darden raided the factory in May. Restaurants, which owns outlets such as

PEELED BY SLAVES • Shrimp | ASSOCIATED PRESS 10 of 13 Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse and practices such as forced labor and debt several other popular American chains. bondage are against the law. The runaway worker was a free man “We just need to educate everyone on after the May raid. But five months later, this issue,” said Jaruwat Vaisaya, deputy running low on cash with a pregnant wife, commissioner of Bangkok’s Metropolitan he felt desperate enough to look for a Police. “I don’t think they know what job in another shrimp factory. He hoped they’re doing is called human trafficking, conditions would be better this time. but they must know it’s wrong.” They weren’t. His wages were withheld, News surfaces about an abusive shed and he ended up in the Gig factory peeling only when workers become so hopeless shrimp next to Tin Nyo Win — No. 31. they’re willing to risk everything to escape. Once on the street, without odern-day slavery is often just part documentation, they are in some ways Mof doing business in Thailand’s even more vulnerable. They face possible seafood export capital. Some shed arrest and deportation or being resold. owners believe they are providing jobs After fleeing the Gig shed, Tin Nyo to poor migrant workers in need. Police Win was alone. He didn’t even know are paid to look the other way and say where the shed manager had taken his officers frequently do not understand that wife. He sought help from a local labor

Dita Alangkara • AP Workers react during a raid on a shrimp shed conducted by Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation in Samut Sakhon, Thailand.

PEELED BY SLAVES • Shrimp | ASSOCIATED PRESS 11 of 13 rights group, which prompted police to in front of the cameras. But the story does take action. not end there. At dawn on Nov. 9, nearly two weeks No one at the Gig shed was arrested after running away, he returned to the shed for human trafficking, a law that’s seldom wearing dark glasses, a hat and a mask to enforced. Instead, migrants with papers, keep the owners from recognizing him. including seven children, were sent back He burst through the gate with dozens of there to work. Another 10 undocumented officers and military troops, and frantically children were taken from their parents and searched for his wife in the dim quarters on put into a shelter, forced to choose between both floors of the maze-like complex. staying there for years or being deported Frightened Burmese workers huddled back to Myanmar alone. Nineteen other

No one at the Gig shed was arrested for human trafficking, [ a law that’s seldom enforced. ] on the dirty concrete floor, the men and illegal workers were detained. women separated. Some could be heard Tin Nyo Win and his wife soon found whispering: “That’s 31. He came back.” out that not even whistleblowers are One young mother breast-fed a 5-month- protected. Just four days after being old baby, while 17 children were taken to reunited, the couple was fingerprinted a corner. and locked inside a Thai jail cell without Tin Nyo Win’s wife was nowhere. even a mattress. They were held on nearly With law enforcement leading the way, $4,000 bail and charged with entering it didn’t take long to find her, though: Mi the country illegally and working without San was at a nearby fish factory. After permits. being caught by the shed manager, she was Back at the shed where their nightmare taken to police. But instead of treating her began, a worker reached by phone pleaded as a trafficking victim, she said they put for help as trucks loaded with slave-peeled her back to work. Even as police and her shrimp continued to roll out. husband escorted her out of the second factory, the Thai owner followed them Epilogue: into the street, complaining that Mi San The Gig Peeling Factory is now closed, still owed $22 for the pork and chicken with workers moved to another shed linked she ate. to the same owners, said Chaiyuth Thomya, For Thai police, it looked like a victory the superintendent of Samut Sakhon’s

PEELED BY SLAVES • Shrimp | ASSOCIATED PRESS 12 o 13 main police station. A Gig owner reached owners, some of whom were confused by phone by the AP declined to comment. about raids that swept up illegal migrants. Jaruwat, the Bangkok police official, Later, Chaiyuth quoted one shed owner was alerted to how the case was being as saying, “I’m not selling drugs, why did handled and has ordered local authorities they take possession of my things?” to re-investigate it for human trafficking, Meanwhile, the AP informed labor and arrests have since been made. Tin rights investigators who work closely with Nyo Win and his pregnant wife were police about another shed where workers released from jail 10 days after they were said they were being held against their locked up and are now being housed in a will. It is being examined. government shelter for victims of human trafficking. Associated Press video journalist Chaiyuth called a meeting to explain Tassanee Vejpongsa in Samut Sakhon, human trafficking laws to nearly 60 shed Thailand, contributed to this report.

Gemunu Amarasinghe • AP Female workers sort shrimp at a seafood market in Mahachai, Thailand.

PEELED BY SLAVES • Shrimp | ASSOCIATED PRESS 13 of 13 [ VIDEO ]

9. SUPERMARKETS SELLING SHRIMP PEELED BY SLAVES Dec. 14, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IeJOnCQlj0&feature=youtu.be [ ABOUT THE WRITERS ]

MARTHA MENDOZA is a Pulitzer prize-winning Associated Press National Writer whose investigative reports have prompted White House responses, Congressional hearings, consumer safety warnings and changes in federal regulations. She has been an AP reporter in New York, , California and . Mendoza was a 2001 Knight Fellow at and a 2007 Ferris Professor of Humanities at . She teaches in the graduate University of California, Santa Cruz Science Communications Program and is a senior fellow at the Institute for Justice and Journalism.

MARGIE MASON has reported for The Associated Press from more than 20 countries on four continents. She has been based in Asia for the past 12 years, working as a regional medical writer for a decade. She has won several awards for her work, and has covered many of Asia’s biggest news stories along with produc- ing groundbreaking enterprise that often focuses on the poor. She was a 2009 Nieman Global Health fellow at Harvard University and an Asian studies fellow at the University of Hawaii in 2000. In addition to postings in Vietnam and her current base in Indonesia, Mason also worked for the AP in San Francisco and Charleston, WV, along with earlier stints at daily newspapers. She has a degree in journalism from West Virginia University.

Bios | ASSOCIATED PRESS ROBIN McDOWELL is a correspondent in The Associated Press’s newly opened bureau in Myanmar. She joined the news coopera- tive in 1996 as chief correspondent for Cambodia, covering every- thing from tank battles in the streets of the capital to the death of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. After several years in the U.S., work- ing first in the Denver bureau and then on the international editing desk in New York, she helped set up the Asia Pacific editing desk in 2001. She was promoted to bureau chief of Indonesia in 2005, covering deadly plane crashes, tsunamis and terrorist attacks on nightclubs and hotels through 2012.

ESTHER HTUSAN is an ethnic Kachin, one of the minority groups in Myanmar. She studied at the regional school and graduated from the University. After experiencing civil war in her ethnic region, Htusan later came down to Yangon, the southern part of the country and studied English and Political Science in the city. Since joining The Associated Press two years ago, Htusan has relentlessly pursued stories about human rights abuses in Myanmar following a half-century of dictatorship.

Bios | ASSOCIATED PRESS