Trafficked into slavery on Thai trawlers to catch food for prawns
The Thai fishing industry is built on slavery, with men often beaten, tortured and sometimes killed - all to catch 'trash fish' to feed the cheap farmed prawns sold in the west
• Revealed: Asian slave labour producing prawns for supermarkets in US, UK
• Thailand's seafood industry: a case of state-sanctioned slavery?
Burmese migrant workers leave the port
Burmese migrant workers leave the port at Mahachai after unloading their catch Photograph: Chris Kelly/theguardian.com
Modern-day slavery in focus is supported by
Humanity United About this content
Kate Hodal and Chris Kelly
Tuesday 10 June 2014 12.05 BST
There is nothing but a jagged line of splinters where Myint Thein’s teeth once stood – a painful reminder, he says, of the day he was beaten and sold on to a Thai fishing boat.
The tattooed Burmese fisherman, 29, bears a number of other “reminders” of his life at sea: two deep cuts on each arm, calloused fingers contorted like claws and facial muscles that twitch involuntarily from fear. For the past two years, Myint Thein has been forced to work 20-hour days as a slave on the high seas, enduring regular beatings from his Thai captain and eating little more than a plate of rice each day. But now that he’s been granted a rare chance to come back to port, he’s planning something special to mark the occasion: his escape.
Using a pair of rusty scissors, Myint Thein chops off his long, scraggly locks. He rinses himself down with a hose, slips on his only pair of trousers and, peering out at his surroundings, remembers not to open his mouth too wide. A man with no teeth is easy to remember.