Two boat slaves survive three days in ocean

Two Thai men were rescued by a fishing boat four kilometers offshore from Pattani on Sunday after they jumped off a slavery boat and survived three days in the ocean.

Nine months after being held hostage and forced to work 21 hours a day, Duangklao Tongkratok, 24, and Ubon Lasa-ard, 39, said desperation drove them to try their luck by jumping from slavery vessel Wiwatchai 19 in the middle of the ocean, hoping they would make it to shore.

The two exhausted men, who were still frightened, were brought to the Donsai sub-district chief yesterday as locals fed them and helped calm them down. They described the experience as “more torturing than hell.”

Duangklao and Tongkratok said they were tricked into working on a fishing boat in January, at which point they were severely beaten by two boat operators who threatened them with a gun.

The men added they lived with six other workers. Every 15 days, the boat returns to the shore to sell the fish while the slaves are transferred to another slavery boat. There are more than 50 slavery boats, they said, with about 100 workers who need rescue.

Some of them are sick while others have become deeply traumatized, they said.

Thailand’s seafood export industry was rocked in June by a damning report which linked human trafficking and slavery – largely of Burmese migrant workers – to fishing vessels. Days later the United States downgraded Thailand to the lowest level of its annual report on human trafficking for not making a serious effort to combat the problem.

Duangklao and Tongkratok said it’s like if they’ve been given a new life, but were so traumatized by the experience they will never visit the beach again, Bangkok Biz News reported.

Photo: Where Is Your Toothbrush?

 

Related:

Thailand seeks to repair slavery-tainted image of prawn industry

 


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