Disgruntled fishermen from 22 coastal provinces have threatened to raise the level of their protest if the government does not respond positively to their demands for relaxation of stringent regulations within three days.
An estimated 8,000 fishing trawler operators and boat crew on Tuesday converged outside the Agriculture and Cooperative Ministry in Bangkok to follow up progress on their 11-point request submitted earlier to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.
Mongkon Sukcharoenkhana, president of the National Fisheries Association of Thailand (NFAT), said they wanted to hand their demands letter directly to Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Chalermchai Sri-on.
If the minister's adviser Alongkorn Ponlaboot was sent out to talk to them, they would shun him, Mr Mongkon said. The adviser had no decision-making power, he added.
His group initially planned a month-long protest, but that had changed. Nine leading members of the group recently agreed to scale up the protest if Mr Chalermchai did not receive the group’s demands personally and respond positively within three days.
Trawler operators would stop fishing and other related activities, Mr Mongkol said.
The group earlier issued a list of 11 demands, calling on the government to ease fishing restrictions address labour shortages and their mounting debt problems. The fishermen also asked the government to spend 10 billion baht buying fishing boats from owners whose business had collapsed because of the new fishing laws.
Mr Chalermchai earlier promised to help address the labour shortage and debt issues in the fishing industry, but remained tight-lipped on the fishermen's nine other demands.
(Photo by Apichart Jinakul)