Story
September 24, 2012
Thailand: Migrant Workers Labor Overtime to Process Shrimp
Country:
America's appetite for inexpensive shrimp from Southeast Asia is growing, but at what cost? In...
In a world hungry for cheap shrimp, Burmese migrants are the backbone of a Thai shrimp industry that is the world's third largest. The United States is Thailand's top customer, accounting for a third of the country's annual shrimp exports.
Rights groups say that overseas demand for shrimp products in greater volume has fueled a culture of exploitation in the Thai industry. They insist the failure of foreign companies to sufficiently verify the origin of the shrimp they import allows abuses to persist.
