On 23 January 2018, Ambassador Manasvi Srisodapol attended the launch of HRW report on situation of migrant workers in Thai fishing industry at the European Parliament, Brussels. Ambassador Srisodapol gave an intervention expressing Thailand’s disagreement with a suggestion made by the report to maintain IUU yellow card on Thailand due to the labour situation even though the same report admits that Thailand has indeed overhauled its fishery management, monitoring and control regimes over the past 3 years. He noted that the report cites interviews made in 2016 and fails to reflect efforts and achievements made in 2017 as well as the next steps of Thailand’s active and ongoing cooperation with the International Labour Organization (ILO), the European Union, local and international NGOs such as Stella Maris, as well as Thailand’s neighboring countries to protect all migrant workers in Thailand, including in fishery sector. Ambassador Srisodapol also reaffirmed Thailand’s political will at the highest level to continue combatting IUU fishing and protecting migrant workers in Thailand and to continue active cooperation with the ILO, the European Union, and other partners in these areas.
