Fishermen protest against strict EU requirements
About XNUMX fishermen and fishing companies in Samut Songkhram have protested against the European Union taking tough measures against illegal fishing. The demonstrators wore black shirts with anti-EU slogans. Er dthere will be an import ban on fish from Thailand if the country does not put an end to the abuses.
According to the EU, Illegal fishing is harmful to fish populations, fish habitats, competition, bona fide fishermen and coastal communities, especially in developing countries. Various measures are intended to ensure that illegal fishermen no longer make a profit from their activities
The Thai protesters want the government to review the measures taken over the past two years to meet the EU's demands. The fishermen are not afraid of an import ban from the EU because a large part of the catch is destined for their own country.
According to Mongkol, president of the National Fisheries Association of Thailand, the government's measures have had a disastrous effect on the fishing industry. The damage is at least 500 billion baht, he estimates. Thousands of trawlers fishing outside Thai waters have gone bankrupt. The number of trawlers fishing in those waters has dropped from 40.000 to 10.000. Of these, 3.500 cannot sail due to a lack of personnel.
Source: Bangkok Post
People are now pointing to fresh fish fishing, but the problem lies more with farmed fish, shrimps and oysters. These cultures contain too many banned chemicals. These are not only the small growers, but more the large fish farms, to prevent diseases, chemistry is addressed. Incidentally, the feed that the small breeders have to use is also marketed by the owner of the large fish farms.
“A thousand trawlers fishing outside Thai waters have gone bankrupt. The number of trawlers fishing in those waters has dropped from 40.000 to 10.000. Of these, 3.500 cannot sail due to a lack of personnel.”
Good news for the environment.
I have not forgotten that in 1995 an owner of a Thai fish canning factory complained that the government of Myanmar was not allowing Thai vessels access to their fishing grounds. One of the reasons was that the Thais used dynamite to chase the fish from their habitats in the reefs.
Never before has a single SE Asian or Chinese cared about the environment. outright robbery. A lot of undersized fish disappears in the fish sauce industry. Doesn't matter how small.
Just as the Thais can impose who and under what conditions and with what rights foreigners may live in THEIR country, the EU may determine under what conditions goods from elsewhere enter the EU.
But… no one is forcing them to supply the EU. As far as I am concerned, the EU should have closed the border to fish from SE Asia and China long before 2000. They have been warned for many years. When will the EU bite the bullet?
The Thais will continue to plunder the seas until the last fish is eaten and ruin the rest with their plastic waste.
According to the original article, the fishermen are also fed up with the EU. And say they don't care if the EU doesn't want their fish anymore.
If the damage amounted to 500 billion, perhaps the fishermen would have to pay their staff enough wages.
After all, with such a strongly reduced fleet, it must be very easy for the remaining to fill the boat.
And if you pay well, there is no shortage of staff.
Anyway, if I remember correctly, the fishery was not very keen on paying staff, and then of course it is a bit of a swallow.
The threat of an import ban has long existed from the EU because of illegal situations in the Thai fishery. But these illegal situations are primarily related to human trafficking and slavery on the boats, which mainly affected illegal Rohynghia refugees from Myanmar.
People were not paid, were killed and thrown overboard, in many cases had to work long periods at sea without being able to set foot ashore for more than a year, and more horror stories like this became known.
The Thai government was then instructed by the EU to 'come clean' and to put an end to human smuggling and exploitation before the threat of an import ban would be lifted.
There were then some arrests by the Thai police of people suspected of these practices and who were also related to the mass graves found on the border of Malaysia and Thailand.
It appears that the proceeds of human trafficking benefited from the proceeds of human trafficking to the highest echelons of Thai politics at a time when many boat people tried to escape from Myanmar to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
In the last year, the ethnic cleansing of Rohynghia Muslims from Rakhine state has escalated and has acquired all the hallmarks of an impending genocide, also given the anti-propaganda, discrimination, pogroms, burning of villages, many killings and rapes. by the military, in short, the demonization of that Muslim group, led by the government of Myanmar.
There should be more political pressure on Myanmar from the countries of SE Asia and not only from the side of the EU, UN and various human rights organisations.
Reading all this makes me very gloomy, none of the parties involved as described here are pure to the degree, most of them even criminally involved.
The animal species “human”, we must gradually conclude, is the worst thing this earth has produced and is clearly on its way to its own demise.