Over the past decade, Thailand’s seafood and fishing industries have been at the center of a global reckoning with forced labor and human trafficking. This retrospective report examines how change happened between 2014 and 2024 — tracing the systemic reforms, pressures, and collaborations that reshaped one of the world’s most complex global supply chains.

 

Commissioned by Humanity United and the Freedom Fund, the study was led by PolicySolve using a causal mapping methodology to uncover not just what changed, but why and under what conditions change occurred. The report offers a systems-level understanding of the Thai seafood sector’s transformation and the risks that continue to threaten progress.

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The study captures a rare, decade-long view of reform in motion, drawing on insights and sensemaking from and with Thai civil society organizations, international NGOs, government agencies, Thai and global private-sector leaders, and philanthropic partners. It makes visible the conditions that existed that both enabled the systemic changes and prevented others. It explores the processes by which change happened, including how they ebbed and flowed over time. It also makes visible how the combination of cross-sector collaboration, international pressure, and strategically deployed philanthropic actions accelerated reforms — from bold legal and regulatory overhauls to the institutionalization of ethical recruitment and traceability practices. At the same time, it reveals the limits of progress: persistent risks of forced labor in the fishing sector, fragile worker rights, and market conditions that constrain deeper change.

 

The findings offer practical insights for governments, businesses, and funders seeking to sustain momentum and advance systemic labor rights reform in global supply chains.