ABSTRACT
This chapter evaluates the roles of the European Union (EU) and International Labour Organization (ILO) in the promotion of Sustainable Development Goal 8 (SDG 8) on decent work and forced labour in Thailand. In 2015, the European Commission issued a fisheries’ ‘yellow card’ to Thailand, threatening economic sanctions and urging the Thai government to take action to eradicate illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The Thai government was successfully pressured by the EU and ILO to improve not only its fisheries’ governance, but also its compliance with labour standards in the fishing industry. The chapter explains how, as a result of pressure and advice from the ILO, the Thai government agreed to make a revision to the domestic Anti-Human Trafficking Act. This made human trafficking and forced labour separately prosecutable offences, whereas previously forced labour was not a stand-alone offence. The chapter also discusses the ILO Baseline and Endline surveys of respect for labour rights in the Thai fisheries’ industry, and concludes that there has been a significant improvement in compliance with ILO standards over the lifespan of the project (2016–2020). The EU partnered with the ILO to successfully diffuse the ‘decent work’ SDG on the ground, leveraging the threat of economic conditionality through use of the fisheries’ yellow card.
