Global supermarkets selling shrimp peeled by slaves - my dish darden restaurants longhorn

2 in the morningm.
They heard the door kicked and threatened to get up or beaten.
For the next 16 hours, no.
31 his wife stood in the factory, which had them with cold water and sore hands.
They ripped off the guts, heads, tails and shells of shrimp shipped to overseas markets, including grocery stores and all --you-can-
Buffet food throughout the United States.
After being sold to the Gig Peeling Factory, they were at the mercy of the Thai boss and were trapped with nearly 100 other Burmese immigrants.
The children worked with them, which included a very small girl who had to stand on the stool to reach the peeling table.
Some people have been there for a few months, even for a few years, with little or no pay.
There's always someone watching.
Never used a name, only the number given by the boss --
Dinio won't win. 31.
The high volume of human trafficking has made Thailand one of the world's largest shrimp suppliers.
While businesses and governments have repeatedly promised to clean up the country's $7 billion seafood export industry, an Associated Press survey found shrimp peeled off by modern food
The day when slaves arrived in America. S.
Europe and Asia.
Corruption and collusion between the police and the authorities contributed to the problem.
There are very few arrests and prosecutions.
The raid may eventually send immigrants who do not have proper paperwork to prison, while the owners are not punished. ----
More than 2,000 trapped fishermen have been released this year as the Associated Press is investigating slavery in Thailand's seafood industry.
The reports also led to more than a dozen arrests, the seizure of millions of dollars, and new federal legal proposals. ----
Hundreds of shrimp sheds are hidden on residential streets or behind walls, and the port city of Samut Sakhon, an hour away from Bangkok, has no sign.
The Associated Press found a factory that enslaved dozens of workers. migrants who left home brought human rights organizations to work sheds and third facilities.
There are 50 to 100 people in all three sheds, and many people are locked inside.
Dinio Winn quickly found the answer for himself, which is not easy to escape.
A woman worked in Gig for eight years.
Another man, after breaking free from an equally brutal factory, peeled the shrimp there.
"After working there for a while, I was shocked and I realized there was no way out," said 22-year-old dinio Wen, whose face and teeth turned red as a result of chewing betel nut.
"I told my wife, 'We are in real trouble.
If something goes wrong at the end, we will die.
"Last month, the Associated Press followed and filmed trucks loaded with fresh peeled shrimp from the show shed to Thailand's main export company, and then used the United StatesS.
Customs records and industry reports in Thailand are tracked globally.
They also tracked similar contacts at another factory six months ago and interviewed more than 20 workers at two factories. U. S.
Customs records show the shrimp entered the supply chain of major US countries. S.
Food stores and retailers like Walmart
Restaurants such as Mart, Kroger, Whole Foods, Dollar General and Petco, as well as Red Lobster and Olive Garden.
It has also entered some of the best supply chains in the United States --
Well-known seafood brands and pet foods, including Sea Chicken and fancy feasts, are available at grocery stores from Safeway and schnuks to pigly Wiggly and Albertsons.
The Associated Press reporter visited supermarkets in 50 states and found shrimp products in the supply chain contaminated by forced labor.
Import and Export records in Europe and Asia are confidential, but Thai companies that accept shrimp tracked by The Associated Press say they are also shipped to Europe and Asia.
Companies that responded condemned the practices that led to these situations.
Many people say that when they are told that their supply chain is linked to those who are against their will, they are launching an investigation, such as a performance factory located behind a large gate on a busy street, between the railway and the river.
In the warehouse, the toilet is full of feces. from a Dew outside the work area, the smell of rotten sewage is floating in the ditch every day.
The children walked barefoot through the suffocating dormitory.
The whole family is working. by-
On one side is a row of stainless steel counters with several barrels of shrimp piled on them.
Dinio moderate his wife, mi sang, was cursed for not peeling fast enough to be called "cow" and "Buffalo ".
"Only when one of them stays as insurance for escape are they allowed to go out and eat.
But all they can think of is running away. ----
Shrimp is the most-
Most popular seafood in the United StatesS.
The Americans were shot down.
3 billion a year, about 4 pounds per person.
Once the luxury is reserved for special occasions, it becomes cheap enough
Thirty years ago, Asian farmers began planting chips and scampis in ponds.
Thailand quickly dominated the market and now exports nearly half of its crude oil to the United States. S.
Southeast Asian countries are one of the worst human trafficking centers on Earth.
It has been blacklisted by the United States for the past two years. S.
The US State Department has cited the collusion of Thai officials.
Earlier this year, the European Union issued a warning to double the tariffs on seafood imports and is expected to decide next month whether to ban seafood imports in full.
Consumers enjoy the convenience of dumping shrimp directly from the refrigerator to the frying pan, which is the result of Labor
Dense stripping and cleaning.
Exporters are unable to keep up with demand, and their supply comes from stripping sheds, sometimes just crude oil garages near the owner's home.
The supply chain is so complex that on any day, buyers don't know where the shrimp came from.
The frozen food Association of Thailand lists about 50 registered shrimp sheds in the country.
However, in Samut Sakhon, the country's main shrimp processing area, hundreds more are operating.
The smell of dead fish filled the wet air.
Refrigerated trucks with seafood signs shuttle huge processing plants across the street.
Just like the little pickup trucks everywhere, loaded with migrant workers from neighboring Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, were taken to internal organs, fillets and de-
Seafood that fuels the economy of the town.
Abuse is common in Samut Sakhon.
A report by the International Labor Organization estimated that 10,000 migrant children aged 13 to 15 were working in the city. Another U. N.
The agency's research found that nearly 60% of Myanmar workers who worked hard in its seafood processing industry were victims of forced labor.
Dinio moderate his wife was taken to the Gig Peeling Factory in July, when they drove long distances from Myanmar and crowded into trucks with other workers, who were barely able to breathe.
Like many immigrants, they are lured from home by a well-promised broker
A job can be found without a visa and a work permit.
After being sold to the performance shed, the couple learned that they had to calculate their combined value --$830.
This is an insurmountable debt.
Because they are illegal workers, the owners are constantly threatening to call the police to queue them up.
Even immigrants with documentation are vulnerable because the boss is holding an ID card so they can't leave. Under the U. S.
The definition of the government, forced labor and debt service, is considered slavery.
In the performance shed, the employee's salary is linked to the speed at which their fingers move.
Dinio moderate his wife peeled about 175 pounds of the shrimp for just $4 a day, less than half what they promised.
A female manager in Thailand often cuts workers' wages without explanation.
After they bought gloves and rubber boots, they paid the "cleaning fee" in the trash can every month "--
The scattered cottage left almost nothing.
Employees say they have to work even if they are sick.
17 children peel off with adults at stations where paint falls off walls and smooth floors are swallowed up by seawater and sometimes cry.
The lunch break was only 15 minutes and immigrants were scolded for saying too much.
Several staff members said that a woman recently died from lack of proper medical care for asthma.
Children never go to school and start peeling shrimp an hour later than adults.
"We had to get up at 3 in the morning and then start working continuously," said 16-year-old, who had his arm pieced together by scars from shrimp-induced infections and allergies.
"We stopped working around 7 in the evening.
We will take a bath and sleep.
Then we start again.
"One night, after being rudely treated by a supervisor, five months later dinio gently decided that they could no longer accept the threat.
He said, "they will say, 'there is a gun in the boss's car, and we will come and shoot you, and no one will know. '".
The next morning the couple saw an opportunity when the door was not being watched. They ran.
Less than 24 hours later, dinio Wen's wife was captured by the shed manager at the market.
When she was dragged away by her hair, he looked helplessly and felt fear for her --
They recently learned that she had children with her. ----
Track how fast the shipping highlights are from the Gig Peeling Factory, far from-
Shrimp can travel.
The Associated Press tracked trucks from sheds to major Thai exporters within five days.
N & N food has one of the largest seafood companies in the world, Tokyo-
Based on Maruha Nichiro food.
For the second time, head to Okeanos Food, another subsidiary of Thai Union, the world's leading seafood supplier.
More is Kongphop Frozen food and Siam combined frozen food, they have customers in the United StatesS.
Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia.
All exporters and parent companies who responded said they hated human rights violations.
Shrimp packaging, branding and shipping can be mixed with different batches of seafood.
At this point, there is no way to know where any single thing is peeled.
According to the United Nations and the United States, once it arrives at American restaurants, hospitals, universities and military canteens, all the shrimps of these four Thai processors are considered to be related to slaveryS. standards. U. S.
Customs records show more than 40 shrimps were exported. S.
Brands, including popular names such as the best in the sea, the waterfront pavilion and the aquarium star.
AP found shrimp products with the same label in more than 150 stores in the United States
From Honolulu to New York to West Virginia, a small town with a population of 179.
There are thousands of Americans in grocery stores. S.
Stores where millions of Americans shop.
In addition, Thai dealers stated on their website that they exported to Europe and Asia, although the specific records were kept confidential.
German, Italian, British and Irish journalists surveyed shrimp in supermarkets and found several brands from Thailand, AP reported.
The stores say the names of their Thai distributors are proprietary.
Royal Green-
An importer whose shrimp is seen by the store brand as a product from Thailand but not linked to the shed
The company said it had moved its purchases to Ecuador.
According to all reports, the work of the performance shed is out of date.
As a result, even businesses that closely follow the origin of shrimp say The Associated Press's findings are a surprise.
"I want to eliminate this," said Dirk lorenberg, CEO of Aqua Star . ".
"I think it's disgusting that it's even part of my business.
Including Red Lobster, Whole Foods and H-E-
The supermarket said they were confident.
According to the guarantee of Thai suppliers-
Their shrimp has nothing to do with the factory abuse.
The Thai supplier admitted that it did not know where all its shrimp was and sent a note to the United States outlining the corrective actionS.
Last week, companies asked for answers.
Thai Union CEO Thiraphong Chansiri wrote: "I am deeply disappointed that despite our best efforts, we have discovered potential illegal labor practices in the supply chain . ".
His statement acknowledged that "products from illegal sources may have entered the supply chain fraudulently" and confirmed that the supplier was "in the process of working with unregistered pre-
Processor that violates our code of conduct.
"After The Associated Press submitted its findings to dozens of global retailers, Thailand jointly announced that it would bring all the shrimpprocessing in-
Buy a house before the end of the year and provide job opportunities for workers with factory closures.
This is an important step for industry leaders, whose international brands include John West of the UK, Peti naval of France and marebru of Italy;
Shrimp from Thailand's abusive factories are not associated with them.
Susan Page, United States of AmericaS.
New opposition to the State Department
The smuggling ambassador said the problem remained as brokers, captains and seafood companies were not held accountable and victims were not recourse.
"We have told Thailand to improve their opposition.
"To increase the prosecution of victims and provide services to victims," she said . "
She added that American consumers "can speak through their wallets and tell the company: 'We don't want to buy what slavery makes.
"The State Department has not imposed sanctions on other countries with equally weak human trafficking records, as Thailand is a strategic ally of Southeast Asia.
Federal authorities say they can't enforce it. S.
The law prohibiting the import of goods produced by forced labor cites exceptions to goods that consumers cannot obtain from another source.
Shrimp just slipped away from the hole.
Thailand is not the only source of slaves.
Contaminated seafood in the United StatesS.
Nearly 90% of shrimp were imported.
State Department's annual counter
The smuggling report linked the seafood to 55 countries on six continents, including major suppliers in the United States. S.
Earlier this year, the Associated Press found a slave island in bengina, Indonesia, where hundreds of migrant fishermen were sold from Thailand and sometimes kept in cages.
Last month, the food giant Nestle disclosed that its Thai suppliers abused and enslaved workers and vowed to force change.
Human trafficking in Thailand is also far beyond the seafood industry.
Earlier this year, Gao
Senior officials are involved in a smuggling group involving tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar.
In Thailand's jungle camp, the Thai government cracked down on dozens of victims who died after being unable to pay a ransom.
The junta has included the country's fisheries sector as the target of reform.
It says it has passed new laws to crack down on illegal activities inside fishing boats and seafood
Processing plants and efforts are being made to register undocumented migrant workers.
"There are some flaws in the law and we have been narrowing those gaps," M said . "L.
Deputy Secretary of the Labor Department of Thailand, Puntarik Smiti ).
"The government has put human trafficking on the national agenda.
The policy is clear and every department is working in the same direction. . . .
In the past, the punishment for workers was mainly concentrated on workers, but now it is more punishment for employers.
"The police pointed out that a new law was directed at officials involved in human trafficking and stated that the eradication of corruption and collusion was a priority.
Critics, however, argue that these changes are largely superficial.
Former slaves repeatedly described how police detained them and then sold them to agents who sold them again to the seafood industry.
"There are laws and regulations, but they are selectively enforced to benefit one party," Thailand-
Labor rights promotion Network Foundation, a non-profit organization.
"When you find a child working 16 hours a day and getting paid ($2. 75). . .
This must be stopped by the government.
"Peeling sheds supplied to major seafood companies in Thailand should be certified and inspected, but the approved seal does not always prevent abuse.
A factory a few miles away from the Sineo canopy provides shrimp for companies including Thai Union; a half-
A dozen former workers said an employee of the Thai Union came to visit the cottage every day.
A migrant worker informed the local migrant labor organization of the situation of slaves.
It's like being cruelly hit by an iron chain behind his ears and throat.
Police raided May's factory.
Former employees told The Associated Press that they were locked in and forced to work long hours without a day off and had little sleep.
The situation they described inside was terrible: a woman who was eight months pregnant had a miscarriage on the shed floor and was forced to continue peeling for four days while bleeding.
A faint toddler was denied medical treatment after falling to the concrete floor about 12 feet.
Another pregnant woman was tracked after she escaped, dragged into the car by her hair and handcuffed to a colleague in the factory.
"Sometimes, when we work, tears flow down our cheeks, and we can't stand it because we are too tired . " Said the fleeing worker.
His name was concealed for fear of his safety.
"We cried, but we were peeling shrimp all the time," he said . ".
"We can't rest. . . .
I think people are guilty if they peel US shrimp like slaves to eat.
"The Shrimp from that factory entered the supply chain of Thai Union, and in the six months before the bankruptcy, the company shipped 15 million pounds of frozen shrimp to dozens of companies in the United States. S.
Customs records show the company.
The restaurants include Red Lobster and Darton, which have olive groves, long horn steakhouses and several other popular American chains.
After the May raid, the fleeing worker was a free man.
But five months later, he was with a pregnant wife with less and less cash, and he was desperate to find a job in another shrimp factory.
He hopes the situation will be better this time. They weren't.
His salary was deducted, and finally he peeled the shrimp at the show factory next to siño Winn. No. 31. ----Modern-
In Thailand's seafood export capital, slavery is often only part of business.
Some shed owners believe they are working for poor migrant workers.
The remuneration of the police is from another point of view, they said that the police often do not understand that forced labor and debt service are illegal.
"We just need to educate everyone on this issue," said Jaruwat Vaisaya, deputy director of Metropolitan Police in Bangkok . ".
"I don't think they know what they're doing is called human trafficking, but they must know it's wrong.
"Only when workers become so desperate that they are willing to run away at all risks will the news come up with sheds that abuse them.
Once they take to the streets without documents, they are more vulnerable in some ways.
They may be arrested, deported or resold.
After leaving the studio, dinio Winn was the only one.
He did not even know where the shed had brought his wife.
He asked local labor rights organizations for help, prompting police to take action. At dawn on Nov.
9. nearly two weeks after he left home, he returned to the cabin with sunglasses, hats and masks, and did not let the owner recognize him.
He and dozens of officers and troops rushed into the gate, frantically looking for his wife in a dimly lit place on two floors of the maze --like complex.
The Frightened Burmese workers were huddled on the dirty cement ground, separated by men and women.
Someone can hear a whisper: "That's 31. He came back.
A young motherfed a 5-month-
17 children were taken to a corner.
Dinio Wen's wife is not there.
However, under the leadership of law enforcement, she was quickly found: Misan was at a fish factory nearby.
After being caught by the head of the shed, she was taken to the police station.
But instead of treating her as a victim of trafficking, she said, they asked her to go back to work.
Although the police and her husband escorted her out of the second factory, the Thai boss followed them into the street complaining that MISSANG still owed her $22 for eating pork and chicken
For Thai police, it looks like a victory in front of the camera.
But the story is not over.
No one was arrested in the performance shed for human trafficking, a law rarely enforced.
Instead, migrants carrying documents, including seven children, were sent back to work there.
Another 10 undocumented children were taken away from their parents and placed in shelters, forced to choose between staying there for many years or being returned to Myanmar alone.
19 other illegal workers were detained.
Dinio moderate his wife soon found that even the whistleblower was not protected.
Just four days after their reunion, they were fingerprint-printed in a Thai prison, not even a mattress.
They were released on bail for nearly $4,000 and charged with illegal entry and work without a license.
Back in the cabin where their nightmare began, a worker asked for help on a truck full of slaves
The peeled shrimp continued to roll out. ----
Drawing to a close: Chaiyuth thomea, head of the main police station at Samut Sakhon, said that the Gig Peeling factory has now been closed and the workers have moved to another shed connected to the same owner
A performance owner contacted by The Associated Press by phone declined to comment.
Bangkok police officer Jaruwat was told how the case was handled and ordered the local authorities to re-process it
They were investigated for human trafficking and subsequently arrested.
Dinio moderate his pregnant wife was released after 10 days in custody and is now placed in a shelter provided by the government for victims of human trafficking.
Chai Yos held a meeting to explain human trafficking laws to nearly 60 shed owners, some of whom were confused about raids to sweep illegal immigrants.
Later, Chai Yu quoted a shed owner as saying, "I don't sell drugs. why do they occupy my things?
"At the same time, the Associated Press informed the labor rights investigators, who worked closely with the police, of another shed where workers said they were forcibly detained.
Checking is in progress.