ENDLESS BRUTALITY
He was paid only $10 a month. and some-
times not at all. There was no medicine.
Anyone who took a break or fell ill was
beaten by the Thai captain. who once
lobbed a piece of wood at Myint for not
moving fish fast enough.
Nearly half the Burmese men surveyed
said theywere beaten, or witnessed others
being abused. They were made to work
almost nonstop for nearly no pay, with
little food and ‘unclean writer. were
whipped with toxic stingray tails, shocked
with Taser-like devices and locked in a
cage for taking breaks or attempting to
flee. Sometimes, the men said, the bodies
ufthose who died were stashed in the ship’s
freezer alongside the fish.
Workers on some boats were killed
for slowing down or trying to jump ship.
The Burmese fishermen said others flung
themselves overboard because they saw
no escape. Myint spotted several bloated
bodies floating in the water.
By 1996, afler three years, he had had
enough. Penniless and homesick, he waited
untii his boat returned to Thar;
went into the olfice on the dock and, for
the firsi time, asked to go home.
His request was answered by a helmet
cracking his skull. As blood oozed out. he
used both hands to hold the wound together.
The Thai man who hit him repeated the
words that already haunted him:
"We will never let you Burmese fisher
men go. Even when you die."
That was the first time he ran away.