Tackling slavery in the Thai fishing industry, one victim at a time

In 2009, as the financial crisis swept the world, Samart Senasuk, now 44, lost his job as a secu­rity guard in Bangkok. Unable to find work, he was preparing to return to his hometown, in Isaan, an impoverished region in the north­east of Thailand, when a friendly man invited him for a drink, to talk about a job on a fishing vessel. Samart turned down the job but, after a few sips of his drink, he says, he passed out. When he woke, he was on a boat off Singapore – how he got…