Slavery in the Thai fishing industry

[Brad the Impala]

Overview
Bangladesh is an impoverished country of over 160 million people. In its short history as an independent nation, Bangladesh has faced a major civil war, massive internal displacement, famines and frequent natural disasters. In addition, Bangladesh is hosting over 200,000 Rohingya refugees from Burma in the eastern region.

Current Humanitarian Situation
The Rohingya ethnic minority of Burma is one of the most persecuted and at the same time one of the largest stateless groups in the world. Stripped of their citizenship by the Burmese government in 1982 and forced to flee by violent military campaigns and sustained persecution since at least the 1940s, over one million Rohingya live in exile. They are the only ethnic group in Burma restricted in marriage, traveling beyond their village or building or maintaining religious structures.

About 29,000 Rohingya live in official refugee camps in Bangladesh, where they are assisted by UNHCR and NGOs, and are not legally permitted to work or go outside the camps. Another 200,000 Rohingya refugees reside in unofficial camps or Bangladeshi villages where there is no legal protection from arrest or abuse and little to no humanitarian assistance. These unregistered refugees live a hand-to-mouth existence тАУ only marginally worse off than the host population. Humanitarian needs continue to grow for Rohingya refugees. In one unofficial camp, malnutrition rates are twice the emergency threshold. The lack of assistance for both unregistered refugees and host communities have increased tensions over scarce resources such as water and firewood, leading to physical and sexual violence against refugees, particularly women and girls. There is little security for undocumented refugees and no access to the police or justice system.

https://www.refintl.org/where-we-work/asia/bangladesh

[Oliver]

Like Brad, I was intrigued by the suggestion that Bangladesh "do something" to help their "co-religionists." I wonder if this should also apply to Christian countries (like the UK....ok , in name only!) welcoming Christian victims of persecution and famine from Africa?
I suspect not; after all, Africans fleeing persecution are also likely to be dark-skinned and poor. Not the sort of people that some posters wish to have living next door.

Come to think of it, it was only a few months ago that our government stopped rescue missions in the Mediterranean on the grounds that saving families from drowning encouraged other desperate people to try to cross the sea.

[Smiles]

Who are "some posters" Ollie?

[fountainhall]

Suddenly we've moved from slavery in a specific industry to questions of refugees generally!

No, you moved from the issue from slavery/refugees to the lack of democracy in Thailand, the implication being that a fully democratic Thailand would find a solution to the problem. It wouldn't! Using Bismarck's oft-quoted maxim, politics is the art of the possible. When you have a population of 65+ million Thais, the vast majority of whom want nothing to do with the Rohingya people, a fully democratic Thai government would hardly be in any position of solve the slavery problem.

... a fully democratic Thai government would hardly be in any position of solve the slavery problem.

I always find it interesting when (usually white) guys who grew up in a democratic society decide that other (usually brown or black people) are not suited to democracy. It used to be known as colonialism when paternalists decided what was best for their inferiors.

[billyhouston]

[attachment=0:xgd7jw6h]Guardian (Medium).jpg[/attachment:xgd7jw6h]

[Oliver]

The New York Times is covering this story today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/27/world ... v=top-news

[billyhouston]

The New York Times has also had some of the best coverage of the Rohingya situation, for example:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/06/wo...-malaysia.html

though I'm not sure if this is available to non-subscribers.

Research, largely in The Netherlands, has shown that the Rohingya, though originally from Bengal, were brought as slaves by the Arakanese as early as the 16th century.

[Dodger]

Right after the New York Times aires the article posted in the link above the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry goes live on TV annoncing the fact that Malaysia has been elevated off the bottom of the so-called Trade Black List and Thailand remains on the bottom of the list which has Thailand pissed off.

Amazing how one major news source can be telling people about how bad the human trafficing problem is directly involving Malaysia and at the same time saying conditions are improving. It's obviously a political manuveur not having anything whatsoever to do with the subject of human trafficing...nothing new here.

See Kerry's bullshit here:

http://news.yahoo.com/malaysia-cuba-tak ... itics.html

[latintopxxx]

Interesting, so he was pissed off that the wife left home because it would cost more to house and feed her and the family. So its not safe or ok for him to stay behind, but ok fior the wife and kids. Dunno, but seems like it cant be that dangerous or bad back home...guess she has to ham it up for the cameras/newspapers or she will not be allowed to stay. Seems like the malaysians and indonesians are onto them....
And in the other story thet freely admit that many freely sign up to work on boats but then make up stories when they change their minds or want better pay....typical?!
As for the young guys on the boats...once they turn 18 there are good jobs in sunnee/boyztown/jomtien waiting for them....