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Story Publication logo September 24, 2012

Thailand: Migrant Workers Labor Overtime to Process Shrimp

Country:

Thailand
Author:
English

Project

Bad Cocktail: Labor Abuse in Thailand’s Shrimp Industry

America's appetite for inexpensive shrimp from Southeast Asia is growing, but at what cost? In...

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A Burmese migrant worker peels shrimp at one of the larger factories in Samut Sakhon province that exports to the West. Image by Jason Motlagh. Thailand, August 2012.
Burmese migrant workers peel shrimp at a large processing factory in Samut Sakhon province. High standards allow the factory to export its seafood to the United States. Image by Jason Motlagh. Thailand, 2012.
Factory workers peel shrimp at a large processing factory in Samut Sakhon province. Image by Jason Motlagh. Thailand, 2012.
Burmese migrant workers flash freeze shrimp at a large processing factory in Mahachai, Thailand. Image by Jason Motlagh. Thailand, 2012.
Workers unload shrimp from a pickup truck at an open-air distribution center in Thailand. Wholesalers at the facility purchase shrimp in bulk for domestic consumption. Image by Jason Motlagh. Thailand, 2012.
A family sorts shrimp at an open-air distribution center in Mahachai, the capital of Thailand’s Samut Sakhon province. Labor abuse is most common in unregistered peeling sheds that line area backroads. Image by Jason Motlagh. Thailand, 2012.
Shrimp is sorted at an open-air distribution center in Samut Sakhon province. Image by Jason Motlagh. Thailand, 2012.
A woman heads home after a day of working in a shrimp peeling factory in Samut Sakhon province, the heart of the processing industry in Thailand. Image by Jason Motlagh. Thailand, 2012.
Thazin Mon and her father in Samut Sakhon province in Thailand. To help support her Burmese migrant family, the 14-year-old worked in a small peeling shed where she was beaten and forced to pull 16-hour shifts, seven days a week, for less than $3 a day. Image by Jason Motlagh. Thailand, 2012.
Burmese migrant workers head home after a day of working in a factory in Samut Sakhon province in Thailand. Of the estimated 400,000 Burmese workers in the province, about 70,000 are legally registered. Image by Jason Motlagh. Thailand, 2012.
A woman sells shrimp on the streets of Samut Sakhon province. Image by Jason Motlagh. Thailand, 2012.

In a world hungry for cheap shrimp, Burmese migrants are the backbone of a Thai shrimp industry that is the world's third largest. The United States is Thailand's top customer, accounting for a third of the country's annual shrimp exports.

Rights groups say that overseas demand for shrimp products in greater volume has fueled a culture of exploitation in the Thai industry. They insist the failure of foreign companies to sufficiently verify the origin of the shrimp they import allows abuses to persist.

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