Catherwood LibraryILR School

Despite repeated promises by businesses and government in Thailand to clean up the country's $7 billion seafood export industry, shrimp peeled by modern-day slaves is reaching the U.S., Europe and Asia. Corruption and complicity among police and authorities has led to few arrests and prosecutions. Raids that have occurred end up sending migrants without proper paperwork to jail, while owners go unpunished. An ongoing AP investigative series into slavery in the Thai seafood industry has led to the freeing of more than 2,000 trapped fishermen this year. The reports also have led to a dozen arrests, millions of dollars' worth of seizures and proposals for new federal laws. The State Department has not slapped Thailand with sanctions applied to other countries with similarly weak human trafficking records because it is a strategically critical Southeast Asian ally. Federal authorities also say they can't enforce U.S. laws that ban importing goods produced by forced labor, citing an exception for items like Thai shrimp, that consumers can't get from another source.