Blog Background

Andy Hall is a British human rights defender and a migrant worker rights specialist. Following his educational training in Australia and the UK, Andy lived as a resident in Thailand and Myanmar for over a decade from June 2005. Andy left Thailand in November 2016 due to increasing threats against his liberty and well-being.

From January 2013 until June 2014, Andy lived in Yangon, Myanmar advising the Myanmar government on migration. He planned to work long term in Myanmar on this work. 

Following confiscation of his passport by Prakanong Court in June 2014, Andy had to remain in Thailand until cases prosecuted by Natural Fruit Company Ltd. against him were completed. He was only allowed to leave Thailand for short periods of time and only following permission from the courts given his entry and exit from Thailand were blocked by the Immigration Department. A career in Myanmar therefore came to an end.

Once some of Natural Fruit’s cases against Andy were dismissed in 2014, his passport was returned to him. But again his freedom of movement was limited after indictment on other cases in January 2016 and his passport was again taken from him by the Thai courts.

Andy attended court hearings in Thailand and his freedom of movement was restricted again until his conviction on computer crimes and criminal defamation charges was handed down by a Thai Court in September 2016, when his passport was finally returned to him. Andy left Thailand in November 2016 when new criminal prosecutions were brought against him. 

All criminal and civil prosecutions filed against Andy by Natural Fruit have since been dismissed or overturned in three Thailand Supreme Court rulings.

Several human rights organisations around the world saw lawsuits against Andy in Thailand as groundless. They stated that the prosecutions were part of wider and increasing restrictions on freedom of speech and oppression of human rights defenders in Thailand.

From November 2016 until March 2017, and from June 2017 to September 2017, Andy was a resident Buddhist mindfulness practitioner at Plum Village Temple in France. After this until January 2018, he lived in Brussels prior to moving to be resident in Kathmandu, Nepal, where he currently resides.

This blog was originally created to follow the criminal and civil cases Natural Fruit Company Ltd. filed against Andy Hall after executing field research in the company’s pineapple concentrate factory in Thailand.

Andy interviewed workers, some of whom were undocumented migrants, and whom reported poor working conditions, unlawfully low wages, confiscation of official documents, use of child labour and excessive overtime.

The research was conducted for Finnish NGO Finnwatch and Hall was not an author of this report but only a researcher.

This blog is now used to publish other writings and press releases related to Andy Hall and his work across Asia to promote migrant worker rights.