Faced with a labor shortage and driven to distant waters by overfishing, Thai fishing fleets have been kidnapping and enslaving young men, some of whom never return home. Those who survive accidents, beatings, and torture in “company prisons” are sometimes stranded in Indonesia for years. Enter Patima Tungpuchayakul, who heads a labor rights organization in Bangkok. Her small team, including former slave Tun Lin, sets out on a mission to bring these men back and fights for them to be compensated. Anyone who eats store-bought seafood should watch Ghost Fleet, a documentary that reveals how an ecological crisis is worsening a widespread human-rights travesty.
Ghost Fleet screens this afternoon, at the 45th Seattle International Film Festival. Check out The Stranger‘s complete SIFF guide here.
