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In Peril at Seas: Migrant Workers in Southeast Asia’s Blue Economy
February 24 @ 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
For generations, the prosperity of Southeast Asia has been closely tied to its deep and productive relationship with the sea. Today, hundreds of millions of people depend on the region’s blue economy for their livelihoods, and the fisheries and seafood processing sectors remain central to economic growth. In recent decades, rapid but uneven socio-economic development has led to a growing reliance on migrant workers to fill labour shortages in these industries, as many nationals in richer economies turn away from work perceived as dangerous and low-paid. While this shift has expanded employment opportunities, it has also heightened concerns about the vulnerability of migrant workers and the prevalence of labour rights abuses across the region.
SEA Junction invites you to the launch of a new report by the Ship to Shore Rights South East Asia programme, jointly implemented by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with funding provided by the European Union. Based on a large-scale baseline study, the report examines the working and living conditions of migrant workers in the fishing and seafood processing sectors across the region. Although not statistically representative, this study represents the largest quantitative survey of these issues conducted to date. The findings from the report reveal that serious decent work deficits persist across the region. Cases of forced labour, debt bondage, wage theft, excessive working hours, unsafe conditions, and gender-based discrimination remain widespread, especially within distant water fleets operating far from effective oversight.
The study, authored by Benjamin Harkins of the Ship to Shore and Daniel Lindgren and Dewi Ratnawulan from Rapid Asia, underscores that exploitation in the sector is not confined to isolated actors, but reflects systemic challenges requiring coordinated, structural solutions to ensure safe migration and decent work throughout the region’s blue economy.
SEA Junction is organizing the report launch under the framework of the Ship to Shore Initiative Rights Southeast Asia as represented by the ILO and in partnership with Rapid Asia.
The event will take place at SEA Junction on 24 February 2026 from 17.30 – 19.00. The discussion will be in English, and will be livestreamed on SEA Junction’s Facebook page (@SEA-Junction) For this launch, we are joined by the following:
Speakers:
- Benjamin Harkins, Ship to Shore Rights Southeast Asia, International Labour Organization
- Daniel Lindgren, Rapid Asia
Commenter:
- Roisai Wongsuban, Human Rights Advocate
Moderator:
- Rosalia Sciortino, IPSR and SEA Junction
In collaboration with Solidarity Collective Thailand, at the event a new series of stickers on migrants contributing to the blue economy will be presented.
Speakers and Moderator’s Bios
Benjamin Harkins is the ILO Technical Adviser for the Ship to Shore Rights South-East Asia programme, formerly in a similar function for the Tripartite Action to Enhance the Contribution of Labour Migration to Growth and Development in ASEAN (TRIANGLE II project). He holds a BA in Cultural Studies from the New College of California and a MA in International Development Studies from Chulalongkorn University.
Daniel Lindgren is the founder of Rapid Asia, a social development consulting firm based in Bangkok. Rapid Asia has carried out multi country and large-scale national studies in over 20 countries across Asia and beyond, working with a number of high-profile donors, UN agencies and international NGOs giving the organization in-depth expertise in several thematic areas such as health, migration, disaster relief, education, human trafficking, climate change, micro finance and food security.
Roisai Wongsuban is currently an advisor to the Freedom Fund. She has worked as a human rights and humanitarian advocate on behalf of migrants, refugees, displaced persons, asylum seekers and survivors of human trafficking. Through her work in advocacy, she continues to be a strong voice for women, both Thai and migrants, addressing rights violation and advocating for sustainable, structural changes to improves situation of vulnerable communities.
Rosalia Sciortino is associate professor at the Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University and the Founder and Director of SEA Junction (seajunction.org). She has served as IDRC Regional Director for Southeast and East Asia (2010–2014), Senior Adviser to AusAID in Indonesia (2009–2010), and Regional Director for Southeast Asia of the Rockefeller Foundation (2000–2007). She also served as a program officer at the Indonesia and Philippines offices of the Ford Foundation. She regularly writes on funding trends in the region (see www.rosaliasciortino.com).
For more information, please email: info@seajunction.org or phone/wa: +66970024140
NB: The event is free, donations are welcome to support SEA Junction activities.
Organizers
SEA Junction, established under the Thai non-profit organization Foundation for Southeast Asia Studies (ForSEA), aims to foster understanding and appreciation of Southeast Asia in all its socio-cultural dimensions- from arts and lifestyles to economy and development. Conveniently located at Room 407-8 of the Bangkok Arts and Culture Center or BACC (across MBK, BTS National Stadium), SEA Junction facilitates public access to knowledge resources and exchanges among students, practitioners and Southeast Asia lovers. For more information see www.seajunction.org, join the Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/1693058870976440/ and follow us on blue sky and Instagram @seajunction.
Rapid Asia Co., Ltd. was founded in February 2010 and is registered in Thailand. Rapid Asia specializes in social research and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) consulting, helping clients to find evidence for change, whether changes in policy or beneficiary behaviour. Rapid Asia’s vision is to help social development clients to achieve sustainable change, anywhere in the world by consucting research and producing evidence. For more information see: www.rapid-asia.com
Ship to Shore Rights South East Asia is a multi-country, multi-annual initiative of the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN), implemented by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in collaboration with International Organization for Migration (IOM) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Its overriding objective is to promote regular and safe labour migration and decent work for all migrant workers in the fishing and seafood processing sectors in South East Asia. For more information, see https://shiptoshorerights.org/.
International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice through setting international labour standards. For more information, see https://www.ilo.org/.
