Ship to Shore Rights South East Asia (SEA) is a multi-country, multi-annual initiative of the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN), implemented by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in collaboration with International Organization for Migration (IOM) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Its overriding objective is to promote regular and safe labour migration and decent work for all migrant workers in the fishing and seafood processing sectors in South East Asia.
While there have been some positive steps taken to improve conditions in the Thai fishing industry, such as Thailand ratifying ILO C188 in 2019, migrant fishers still face exploitation. Ship to Shore Rights provides a platform for tripartite social dialogue among key stakeholders to address the major challenges to realizing structural reform that mitigates the significant problems remaining in the industry in Thailand and throughout the region.
In the Thai fishing industry there has been an increase in the minimum wage. There has been more protections added to what the Port-in Port-out (PIPO) inspectors are supposed to be looking for. But there is still challenges that remain in effective enforcement and monitoring of the policies that have been put in place and the Convention that has been ratified. There is more transparency on what is happening to fishers, but there are still significant challenges that remain in the industry.