Efforts to protect Thai seafood workers from labour exploitation and modern slavery risk stalling as most international brands and retailers refuse to pay their suppliers more to comply with new anti-slavery policies, researchers have said. Thai seafood suppliers are struggling with rising production costs as they seek to improve labour conditions and meet new anti-slavery laws and regulations, with little or no financial help from big buyers, found a study by rights group Praxis Labs. The anti-slavery group The Freedom Fund co-funded the study based on the policies and actions of 28 companies. Thailand has recently sought to clean up its multi-billion-dollar fishing industry after investigations revealed widespread abuses and the European Union threatened to ban imports from the country. New laws that tackle human trafficking and the treatment of migrant workers have been introduced but the report said that complying with new laws and regulations has increased production costs, while most international buyers were refusing to increase their prices.

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