US: Child labour issues in Thai shrimp industry resolved

Published May 16, 2024

Tridge summary

The United States will remove Thai shrimp from its list of goods produced by child or forced labor, acknowledging significant improvements in Thailand's shrimp industry labor practices. This decision by the US Department of Labor is based on credible evidence of reduced forced child labor, reflecting the success of policies by Thailand's Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives. Thai shrimp was added to the list in 2009 to prevent US federal agencies from buying goods made by forced or indentured child labor. Recent efforts by the Thai government and stakeholders have effectively addressed labor exploitation in the seafood industry, especially in shrimp peeling.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

The United States is preparing to remove shrimp from Thailand from its annual list of goods produced by child labour or forced labour, according to Kenika Ounjit, a deputy spokesperson for the government. Ms Kenika said the decision by the US Department of Labor (DOL) showed that the government was seriously addressing child labour issues to comply with international standards. A statement from the US agency posted in the Federal Register on May 10 said that while children previously worked under forced labour conditions in the production of shrimp, “the trend appears to have been significantly reduced”. It said it based its conclusions on “recent, credible and corroborated information from various sources”. The move reflects the success of government policies and measures introduced by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives to improve labour practices in the shrimp industry, Ms Kenika said. The DOL placed shrimp from Thailand on its executive orders list back in 2009. The ...

Source: Bangkokpost