Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is stepping up the government's anti-human trafficking measures to try to lift Thailand from its "Tier 3" status, which the United States reserves for countries with the worst records on human trafficking.
Gen Prayut yesterday chaired a meeting of agencies concerned with human trafficking prevention and told them to review their systems to make sure they are cooperating.
He instructed them to set up five sub-committees to tackle various aspects of the problem. The panels will cover fishing industry labour, child labour, migrant workers, female workers, and legal affairs and public relations.
Each sub-committee is required to set goals and report progress to the prime minister every month. They are required to submit their working plans to Gen Prayut by Jan 7.
The US spends four years monitoring a country's anti-human trafficking performance before assessing its tier status.
Thailand was added to the Tier 2 watch list in 2010 before being downgraded to Tier 3, the lowest level, this year for its lack of progress in combating human trafficking.
"Today we are being monitored, and we need to take the lessons we have learned to assess the problem of human trafficking and solve it," Gen Prayut said.
"We have taken several measures in the past but they have yet to be completed. We need to improve on both efficiency and legal issues."
The government needs to be more concerned about the food industry and conduct more stringent inspections under illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) regulations in the seafood sector, he said.
The international IUU regulations place a higher burden on producers and exporters of processed seafood, including reporting the product's origin.
As a result, Thailand will accelerate registration of fishing labour by February next year, Gen Prayut said.
"I will not allow it to happen again," he said, referring to the use of illegal labour in the fishing industry.