Global Grocer Supply Chains Tied to Slave-Peeled Shrimp

Global Grocer Supply Chains Tied to Slave-Peeled Shrimp
ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, DEC. 14, 2015 AT 12:01 A.M. EST (05:01 GMT) AND THEREAFTER - In this Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015 photo, female workers, wearing a yellow-white cosmetic paste known as thanka on their cheeks, sort shrimp at a seafood market in Mahachai, Thailand. Shrimp is the most-loved seafood in the U.S., with Americans downing 1.3 billion pounds every year, or about 4 pounds per person. Thailand sends nearly half of its supply to the U.S. AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe
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SAMUT SAKHON, Thailand—Poor migrant workers and children are being sold to factories in Thailand and forced to peel shrimp that ends up in global supply chains, including those of Wal-Mart and Red Lobster, the world’s largest retailer and the world’s largest seafood restaurant chain, an Associated Press investigation found.

At the Gig Peeling Factory, nearly 100 Burmese laborers were trapped, most working for almost nothing. They spent 16 hours a day with their aching hands in ice water, ripping the guts, heads, tails, and shells off shrimp.

One girl was so tiny she had to stand on a stool to reach the peeling table. Some workers had been there for months, even years. Always, someone was watching.

“They didn’t let us rest,” said Eae Hpaw, 16, her arms a patchwork of scars from shrimp-related infections and allergies. “We stopped working around 7 in the evening. We would take a shower and sleep. Then we would start again around 3 in the morning.”

$7 Billion Industry

Pervasive human trafficking has helped turn Thailand into one of the world’s biggest shrimp providers. Despite repeated promises by businesses and government to clean up the country’s $7 billion seafood-export industry, abuses persist, fueled by corruption, and complicity among police and authorities.

Arrests and prosecutions are rare. Raids can end up sending migrants without proper paperwork to jail, while owners go unpunished.

Hundreds of shrimp-peeling sheds are hidden in plain sight in Samut Sakhon, an hour outside Bangkok, some with slaves locked inside.