ILO Ship to Shore Rights Project, Migrant Worker Rights in Thai Fishing and Seafood Processing

The ILO Ship to Shore Rights Project, funded by the European Union and implemented in Thailand from 2016 to 2020, addressed labor rights of migrant workers in the fisheries and seafood processing sectors (ILO, 2020). This is an adjacent maritime supply-chain example rather than a port-operator case: the project focused on fishing and seafood processing, and its link to ports is mainly through port-in/port-out inspections. Its findings may still inform ports that rely on migrant workers.

The project documented labor rights issues including, among others, forced labor on fishing vessels, forced labor among migrant workers from Myanmar and Cambodia in Thai fishing and seafood processing, employer retention of fishers' identity documents, and low awareness of complaint channels among migrant workers (ILO, 2020). The project worked with the Royal Thai Government, employers, trade unions, and civil society to strengthen labor protections. Its endline survey found that nearly all fishing boats (99 percent) had recently been inspected at port-in/port-out (PIPO) centers, but more than one third of respondents had rarely or never seen inspection staff in the past 12 months (ILO, 2020).

Applicable lessons for port operations include, among others, the importance of documentary regularity for migrant workers, accessible grievance mechanisms in workers' native languages, collaboration with civil society organizations with migrant worker expertise, and alignment of port labor practices with ASEAN regional frameworks on migrant worker rights.