“I AM LAUNCHING THESE CASES WITH A HEAVY HEART” ….just in from Finnwatch Lawyers representing Andy Hall, a British researcher and labour activist specialising in migrant worker rights, will tomorrow on 31st May at 9:00am (GMT+7hrs) file criminal litigation against Thailand’s Office of the Attorney General, nine Thai state prosecution officials and one senior police […]
BUT STILL HE’S GOING THROUGH HELL COMMENT Congratulations are in order today for Andy Hall after the Supreme Court in Thailand finally dismissed a libel case brought over an interview he gave al-jazeera television describing conditions for Burmese migrant labourers at a Natural Fruit plant in the Thai province of Prachuap Khiri Kan. Congratulations as […]
Thailand’s Supreme Court will rule this week on decisions to acquit migrant workers activist Andy Hall of defaming the Natural Fruit Company. Andy Hall was acquitted at the Bangkok Criminal Court in Prakanong and at the Appeal Court. It seems that he should be acquitted again, but nothing is written in stone in Thailand, and […]
‘WE ARE SHOCKED’ – SAYS FINNWATCH DIRECTOR. ‘HE IS A SCAPEGOAT’ Natural Fruit boss Wirat Piyapornpaiboon: “No foreigner should think they have power about Thai sovereignty.” British workers’ rights activist Andy Hall was given a four year suspended jail sentence in Thailand today for speaking out against the ill-treatment of Burmese workers at a pineapple […]
COMMENT Cases of criminal libel and libel under the Computer Crime Act brought against a British researcher who helped expose mistreatment of Burmese migrant workers will be decided at the Criminal Court in Bangkok tomorrow. Andy Hall faces up to seven years in prison as a result of the action by the Natural Fruit Company […]
The executive director of Finnwatch, the consumer group which produced a critical report on the Thai fruit canning company ‘Natural Fruit’ citing its treatment of migrant Burmese labour is to fly in from Helsinki to Thailand to the trial of British team member Andy Hall. In the long running farce in which Natural Fruit has […]
LOSING FACE TO SAVE FACE IN THAILAND Lest we forget; the continuing persecution of Briton Andy Hall, who was part of a team which exposed ill-treatment of Burmese workers employed by the the Natural Fruit Company in Thailand, continues this Thursday. Andy Hall helped write the report ‘Cheap Has a High Price’ for Finnwatch. But […]
Andy Hall the British migrant workers activist has been banned from leaving Thailand and his passport has been seized in his continuing battle with the Natural Fruit Company over its treatment of its Burmese labour. The following is the statement issued today bv Finnwatch which complains of judicial harassment. Hall was one of the researchers […]
‘CHANCES OF FAIR TRIAL LOOKING GRIM’ The decision today to indict British migrant work Andy Hall in Thailand on criminal libel and computer crimes charges under laws which do not exist in any other country and are designed to protect the status quo of the rich and privileged has been described today as a blow […]
HUMAN TRAFFICKING: ‘SHOCKINGLY INADEQUATE VICTIM PROTECTION, WEAK ENFORCEMENT, ENDEMIC CORRUPTION!’ Despite claims by the Thai military government that it had taken sufficient steps to have the country removed from the United States ‘Tier 3’ list of worst offenders in the world for human trafficking – the country has done absolutely nothing to improve its reputation […]
Andrew Drummond is a British independent journalist and occasional television documentary maker. He is a former Fleet Street, London, journalist having worked at the Evening Standard, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, News of the World, Observer and The Times.