Withdraw all Lawsuits and Ensure Independent Investigation on the Conditions of Workers in Natural Fruit!

The Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA) is in solidarity with partner British human rights activist Andy Hall as he faces a criminal defamation lawsuit filed by Natural Fruit, a pineapple processing factory, in Thailand.

Mr. Hall has been an advocate of migrants’ rights in Thailand for almost a decade and recently exposed through evidence-based and reliable research the human rights abuses committed by Natural Fruit to its employees in its Pranburi plant in Prachuapkirikhan Province of Thailand.

Andy Hall made significant contributions to a report published by Finnwatch in January 2013. The report entitled, Cheap has a High Price: Responsibility Problems Relating to International Private Label Products and Food Production in Thailand, delves in to the extensive and systematic worker rights violations of Natural Fruit, occurring as of November 2012, that included excessive hours and mandatory overtime with little to no rest periods; physical and psychological mistreatment; provision of false information prior to employment; illegally low wages; withholding of passports; unauthorized salary deductions; exposure to harmful chemicals without adequate protective equipment; under or non-compensation for workplace injuries or deaths and employment of child labor.

In November and December 2012, Finnwatch and Mr. Hall requested for interviews and feedback from Natural Fruit on their initial and concerning research findings both directly and using other indirect means to contact the factories management. In December 2012 the researchers then also sent a serious letter of allegation regarding Natural Fruit to Thai authorities and various international agencies and foreign government but did not receive any responses to their correspondence prior finally to publication of their report in January 2013.