SAMUT SAKHON, 4 May 2015 – A random inspection by police has been carried out on fishing vessels in Samut Sakhon province in an attempt to prevent human trafficking and ensure operators’ compliance with the law.
Assistant National Police Chief Pol Lt Gen Prawut Thavornsiri traveled to Marine Police Station 4 located in Mueang district of Samut Sakhon in order to convene with representatives from agencies involved in anti-human trafficking efforts, such as the Marine Police Division, Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division, Immigration Bureau, Department of Employment and Marine Department.
During the meeting, Pol Lt Gen Prawut said he was assigned by the National Police Commissioner-General to follow up on the enforcement of various measures against human trafficking in Samut Sakhon, which is one of Thailand’s major port provinces. Such measures include the registration of fishing boats and crew members, setting up of marine checkpoints to screen all incoming and outgoing vessels and installation of vessel monitoring systems on boats of 30 gross tonnage or over.
The progress of these measures is set to be presented to EU officials who will be visiting Thailand next week to observe Thai fishery operations following the recent issuance of a yellow card.
On this occasion, Pol Lt Gen Prawut also led his entourage on a random inspection of local fishing boats. Most of them were found to be employing workers from Myanmar, with Thai supervisors. All the workers were able to present proper work permits. Nonetheless, some of the boats were missing certain documents, a problem that will need to be addressed.
