After slavery, trafficked fishermen face lonely road to recovery
12 July
PHNOM PENH (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When hundreds of fishermen were rescued from a life of slavery on Thai fishing boats off the coast of Indonesia earlier this year, the world took notice.
Trafficked and sold to work on the boats, the men - mostly from Myanmar and Cambodia - had endured beatings, abuse and torture.
After they were freed, however, they had little support to help them recover from the horrors they had experienced.
"Everyone is shocked when they hear about the conditions on these fishing boats - but then what? No money is available to help them after they've been rescued," said Lisa Rende Taylor, director of Project Issara, a public-private alliance to tackle trafficking in Southeast Asia's supply chains.
Donor countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development allocate about $120 million each year to combat modern slavery - a sum dwarfed by the $150 billion in estimated profits each year from the human trafficking industry.
Governments and donors mostly fund support for women and girls trafficked for sex, but there is little money for male trafficking survivors, many of whom have suffered and witnessed extreme violence.
Trafficked fishermen are forced to work up to 20 hours a day, endure beatings and sexual assault, and have seen injured colleagues thrown overboard and left to drown, researchers have found.
Deprived of pay, those able to return home are penniless, making them feel worthless.
