Accused of extreme violence against trafficking victims forced to work for little or no pay, the reputation of Thai fishing boat captains is lying in tatters after a series of reports revealed widespread human rights abuses in the industry.
But a group of skippers stranded in Indonesia say they are misunderstood, and have become scapegoats for outrage at crimes they had nothing to do with.
“People see us as villains who brutally mistreat fishermen,” said Manote Daengprasert, the 50-year-old skipper of a Thai-registered fishing boat operating in Indonesian waters.
“People think we are all bad. My daughter called me from Thailand the other day and asked me whether I was really that brutal.
“She had read in the Thai news that skippers were trading in human beings. I am just a normal person. I treat my crew like any other human beings.
“I used to be proud of being a captain. It takes a lot of hard work to become the commander of a ship. But the recent news has made it look like we are all evil people.”
Waiting game: Captain Anek Khamhiran, 68, is on Ambon island and among hundreds of Thai fishermen stranded in Indonesia while the country reconsiders its policy on foreign boats.
STUCK ON DRY LAND
Spectrum interviewed Mr Manote on Ambon island earlier this month when the director-general of the Department of Consular Affairs at the Thai Foreign Ministry, Thongchai Chasawath, met with a group of 30 captains and crew as part of a visit to help repatriate Thai fishermen.
The group are among hundreds of Thais stranded in Indonesian ports after the country suspended the operation of all foreign boats in November, pending the announcement of its new fishing policy.
Since the suspension, officials have been scrutinising foreign boats and investigating human trafficking in the regional fishing industry.
Authorities have found several hundred foreign migrants employed on boats. Some were under the age of 18, which makes them illegal regardless of whether they were working voluntarily.
Officials also discovered hundreds of Thai fishermen who had been living in Indonesia for several years after escaping their vessels. They said they were tricked into working on the boats and had no way of getting home. Some had been told they would be going to sea for days or weeks at a time, and ended up offshore for many years.
Mr Manote acknowledged the fishing industry has its problems. “There are good and bad people,” he said.
But he argued some fishing boats have no choice but to hire foreign workers.
“At Mahachai [in Samut Sakhon], you can find many migrant workers who are willing to work on the boats,” he said.
“Some boats do not check the workers’ ID. They just want workers. Some migrants prefer to work on the boats rather than trying to evade the authorities for staying in Thailand illegally.”
Thai fishing boats will no doubt be more cautious when hiring workers since the recent revelations about human trafficking in the industry, he said.
Down time: The fishermen’s quarters are cramped, but there is space for personal items.
HOME FROM HOME
Mr Manote’s vessel is a large fishing boat with a wooden hull, equipped with a satellite system. A sonar device in the command room locates areas where there are “clouds” of plankton. Pointing to the screen and the white dots showing possible sources of plankton, he explained: “That’s where you might find a lot of fish.”
On the front deck of the boat, there is a small statue of Prince Chumphon, who is regarded as the father of sailors.
“Every Thai fishing boat has his statue for good luck,” Mr Manote said.
Fishermen are superstitious. They believe each ship has a guardian angel. Before setting off on a voyage, Mr Manote always pays homage to the guardian with an offering of flowers and colourful cloth, to pray for a safe journey.
The captain’s bedroom is the most spacious room in the boat, and big enough to fit a proper bed.
The rest of the crew reside in compartments on the upper deck of the ship. Each room has a television or some kind of audio system for the crew members. The lower part of the ship is used as a cooking area.
“We eat fresh fish here. We buy vegetables and meat when we reach shore,” he said.
The KM Maribu 99 is among 75 Thai-registered boats ordered to dock in Ambon indefinitely. The Indonesian process of verifying whether these boats were fishing legally is taking some time.
Mr Manote’s ship was impounded on Nov 19, seven days after it arrived at Ambon. The vessel had been fishing in Indonesia’s Arafura Sea.
Mr Manote said Indonesian officials had previously visited the boat to examine its licence and registration number as part of a random check. Officials from Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation have also examined the vessel.
A room of one’s own: The crew members reside in individual compartments on the upper deck of the ship. Each room has a television or some kind of audio system for the workers to use in their free time.
TOUGH AT THE TOP
Mr Manote said he hires both Thai and Indonesian workers. Of 35 crew members, 10 are Indonesians, in line with the legal requirement to employ locals.
“I choose not to take on other foreign migrants because sometimes they fight among each other.
“You have to know the people you hire because you have to manage these people,” he said, adding that he speaks "a little" Bahasa.
Having spent years working at sea for several months at a time, the captain has to make sure his crew follow the rules, such as no drinking on the job.
He has physically struck crew members as a disciplinary measure on occasions. But he said he does not use a gun to control his men.
“Yes, I have to punish people when they do something wrong such as drinking or stealing the catch,” he said.
“I yell at them when they do something wrong, to set an example for the rest. This is the real world. People are tough. And I have to be decisive.”
But Mr Manote added: “Any captain would be insane to kill one of his people. There are 10 Indonesians on my boat. If something like that happened, the Indonesian crew members would definitely not let me off the hook, because we are operating in their country.”
Not far from where his vessel was docked sat two Chinese-registered fishing boats with steel hulls. “All their crew members and captains are gone,” Mr Manote said.
“I volunteer to be here to guard the boat. I have been working on this boat for years. It is like my home.”
Spectrum also met Theeraporn Duangchamlong, Mr Manote’s 30-year-old steersman assistant, and Dejduang Saengchan the 34-year-old head of the trawler. Mr Theeraporn said: “I decided to stay on the boat because I can still earn a salary from the company.”
In total, only eight people have stayed on to guard the boat, waiting for further instruction from the Indonesian authorities. The rest of the crew were sent home by the company that owns the vessel.
Troubled waters: Manote Daengprasert has spent his life fishing. He admits the industry has problems, but says captains are ‘misunderstood’.
OFFSHORE ADVENTURE
Working on a ship can offer a good source of income for those attracted to life at sea. It does not require a high level of education, and it is easy to save money since there are few expenses offshore, other than necessary supplies.
Most fishermen come from poor families and have little education. The current generation of skippers started their careers at a young age.
“I didn't know at the time that it was illegal to work when you were under 18,” Mr Manote said.
Mr Manote was born in Samut Songkhram province. He left school around the age of 13. His parents took him to the skipper of a fishing boat and asked the captain to teach their son the trade. “My parents thought it was better for me to work on a boat rather than leaving me running around with the other reckless young people,” he said, adding he first went to sea as a teenager.
The working hours are not the same as those in a factory. The crew gets up before sunrise, about 5.30am, to put out the trawling nets. They then wait for a couple of hours before pulling the fishing nets in, emptying out the fish and deploying the nets again. The steersmen take turns to direct the boat at night.
Mr Manote began his career in Thai territorial waters, rising up the ranks to become the captain of a ship with a licence to fish in Indonesian waters.
The story of other captains is similar. Coming from a poor family, “I wanted to be a sailor,” said Anek Khamhiran, the 68-year-old skipper of the Mabiru 7, another boat stranded in Indonesia.
A native of Samut Sakhon province, Mr Anek started working on boats when he was under 16. “During my first time on a boat, I got seasick and vomited badly,” Mr Anek said, adding that he worked his way up to becoming a captain over the years.
He also started fishing in Thai waters. Later, his vessel fished in the seas of neighbouring countries, including Vietnam and Myanmar. “I was caught once when my boat was fishing outside Thailand in Vietnamese waters. There were no concessions at that time. I was detained for a couple of days,” he said.
Mr Anek said he has fished almost everywhere in the Andaman and South China Sea. His boat once capsized in Myanmar waters, and he had to use the vessel’s communication system to call for help from other Thai boats fishing in the same area. One of his rescuers was Mr Manote’s ship. The two captains have known each other for decades.
BOUNTIFUL CATCH
Each round of fishing requires between two and three months at sea. The boats then empty their haul at a port of their choice. The crew stay on the shore for a couple of days to rest before going back out to sea again.
Mr Manote’s and Mr Anek’s boats normally unload their catches at Ambon island, where they sell some of the fish to locals and pack the rest into freezers. A larger vessel then comes to transport the catch to Thailand.
Mr Manote said his ship usually works outside Thai territorial waters for more than a year at a time. “The company sponsors my wife to fly to Indonesia to visit me once a year. It's a perk for the captain,” he said.
The skipper is responsible for the whole operation of the ship, and for the well-being of crew members.
“It takes hard work to prove to the owners of the boat that you are a responsible person and can control the crew,” Mr Anek said. “We have to make sure that the crew don't get drunk while working. Otherwise, they may damage the fish and our commission.”
A 450 tonne-capacity fishing boat requires about 35 crew members. Each has their own duty, such as trawler, mechanic, steersman or cook.
Catch of the day: Fishermen make the most of being on shore to eat meat and fresh vegetables at the mouth of a river on Ambon island.
NO QUESTIONS ASKED
The workers came from different backgrounds and the captains are not interested in their past, good or bad. “Once they get on the boat, we don’t ask about their past. We don’t want to know if they have committed a crime,” Mr Manote said.
He added that some fishermen work on boats to escape the law. “I have heard that some of the fishermen repatriated back to Thailand were arrested on outstanding charges,” he said.
Wanchai Khuen-koonthod, the 55-year-old skipper of the Tamina 8, said: “The most memorable day of my life was when I was named captain of a fishing boat at the age of 35.”
Mr Wanchai, who left school before he was a teenager, said he “climbed up the ranks, doing everything from working on the fishing nets to being a boat mechanic”.
“Working on a fishing boat has helped me save money. We have our salary and additional commission from the fish that we sell after each round at sea. It’s a good profession if you want to save money because there is nothing to squander your cash on when you’re the boat,” he said.
Mr Wanchai, from Nakhon Ratchasima, said he and his two friends went looking for work in Prachuap Khiri Khan at the age of 15. “We heard that they needed fishermen and we wanted to go on a journey at sea,” he said.
The captain has managed to save enough of his wages to buy a longan fruit plantation in Chiang Mai, where he plans to spend his retirement.
His three children received college educations, and one of them is studying for a master’s degree in Australia.
“This would not have been possible had I been a construction worker,” he said.
Mr Manote said all crew members on his ship receive the same benefits. “In addition to a starting salary of 9,000 baht per month — equivalent to the minimum wage — each gets commission according to the amount of fish sold at port,” he said.
“Mechanics and steersmen receive 2% of the total value of the fish sold, while crew members get 1% and the captain receives 10%.”
The salary is wired directly from the company to employees’ bank accounts, while the skipper determines the commission given to each crew member. “If you work harder, you get more pay. It’s as simple as that,” he said.
ROGUE AGENTS
The entire fishing industry has been damaged by the exposure of human trafficking in its midst, with a knock-on effect for lucrative Thai exports.
The skippers that Spectrum spoke to acknowledged that some boats do hire crew from rogue brokers who trick people into working at sea.
Some companies offer advance payments of up to 30,000 baht in cash to recruit a crew member. The agent takes a cut and gives the rest to the fisherman.
The captain then expects the worker to stay on the boat for at least two or three months, to fulfil the minimum obligation based on the advance payment from the company.
“Some agents are not straightforward with these people,” Mr Manote said. “Some workers are not prepared to spend at least two months at sea.”
However, the best fishing boats often have a choice of workers. “Some fishing boats are able to recruit good workers, especially if they have a record for making big catches, because the fishermen realise they can earn more from the commission,” he said.
Asked if any of his workers have been unhappy with the reality of life at sea, Mr Manote said: “Of course, some do not want to stay. But I ask them to stick with it until the end of each round, because it is not possible to turn the boat back.”
Mr Manote said he does not recruit workers through agents, since he wants to select the crew himself. “The captain is responsible for everything. So, I want to hire people I know,” he said.
The captain cited an ongoing case in Indonesia, where a Thai skipper is in custody on Dobo island accused of using forced labour.
Mr Manote claimed he had heard a different story from the jailed skipper.
“I was told that some of his crew stole fish from the boat, so the captain punished them by locking them up in a room in Benjina island,” he said. “These fishermen later filed charges against the captain, saying that they were forced to work on the fishing boat against their will.”
HEAVY RESPONSIBILITY
During the meeting with Mr Thongchai from the Thai Foreign Ministry, some captains told of the hardships of their lives. “We are constantly faced with unpredictability as a result of changing fishing policies,” Mr Anek said.
The Indonesian government recently extended its suspension of foreign fishing boats for another six months from April 30. This means the Thai boats will be docked there until at least October.
Yongyuth Nitiwongcharoen is one Thai captain facing an uncertain future due to an ongoing court case that has been suspended by the Indonesian authorities.
The Indonesian navy caught his boat, the Chok Navy 6, after it set sail from Benjina island 14 months ago.
The vessel was only permitted to fish 12 nautical miles off the coast of Indonesia. “Our boat was pushed to 11.8 nautical miles because of the natural current,” Mr Yongyuth said.
After being apprehended by the navy, Mr Yongyuth went to the local court in Ambon and paid a preliminary fine. Just as he was about to appeal for his vessel to be released, a new Indonesian government came into office. His case is now suspended.
Mr Yongyuth is grounded with his boat, which is now docked at Tual island, pending further instruction from the Indonesian authorities.
“I have been here for 14 months,” he said with tears in his eyes. “I am sick and I want to go home.” n