On 11 May 2018, the Criminal Court sentenced the owner of the fishing vessels “Mook Andaman 018” and “Mook Andaman 028” for the following charges: taking the vessels out to the waters of a foreign state and high seas without permission or taking refrigerated fishery cargo carriers to the waters of a foreign state without permission; failing to bring the vessels back to port within the deadline set by the Notification of the Department of Fisheries; exceeding the time limit to return to port without notifying the Port-in Port-out (PIPO) Control Centre; hiring migrant workers without work permits and sea books according to the Navigation in the Thai Waters Act; failing to provide compulsory rest hours according to the law and failing to document records of rest hours; failing to make two copies of the employment contract, each to be kept separately by the employer and the employee; being unable to present to the labour inspectors salary payment and over-time  payment documents; as well as failing to show employees registration to the PIPO Centre.

          The vessels owner and his partner were found guilty on all charges. Each was fined 111,543,500 Thai Baht. The second defendant was also sentenced to 6 months in prison, suspended for two years. If they cannot pay the fine, they will be subjected to more than one year in prison in lieu of the fine payment.

          Previously, the Criminal court issued fine sentences for four other vessels conducting illegal fishing overseas in the same period of time, namely Yu Long 125, Yu Long 6, Hung Chi Fu 68, and Seribu, to an amount totaling over 235 million Thai Baht. This reflects the Royal Thai Government’s commitment to strict law enforcement to deter illegal fishing as well as illegal treatment of labour in the fisheries sector, in order to promote sustainable and responsible fisheries in line with international standards.