BANGKOK — For years, it was a poorly kept secret. Thailand’s fishing industry — a key supplier to the US — is entangled in barbaric slavery. Today, slave labor on Thai trawlers is no longer a secret.

It was already late when Maria, alone in her room, thought about taking her own life by jumping from the seventh floor window. Her day at work, just on the other side of the door, had again started ...

But rather than help the pensioner, now aged 74, Miller emptied her bank account and spent the victim’s money on holidays and designer clothes, forcing her to carry out chores and beg on the streets.