Human trafficking in Thailand
"[1]: 330 Thailand's relative prosperity attracts migrants from neighboring countries who flee conditions of poverty and, in the case of Burma, military repression.
Significant illegal migration to Thailand presents traffickers with opportunities to coerce or defraud undocumented migrants into involuntary servitude or sexual exploitation.
Four key sectors of the Thai economy (fishing, construction, commercial agriculture, and domestic work) rely heavily on undocumented Burmese migrants and other ethnic minority groups from Myanmar, including children, as cheap labourers.
[6] Sex trafficking victims from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam, and North Korea have been identified as having passed through Thailand en route to Western Europe, Singapore, Russia, and the US.
[12][17][18] A detailed study of the motives, practices, and context surrounding the use of forced labour on Thai boats was published by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in 2011.
[21][22][23] On the heels of critical reports of human trafficking and violence against fishermen in 2014 and 2015, the European Union (EU) issued Thailand a "yellow card" warning over its illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices.
[27] Prayut went on to say that if Thailand failed to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, other countries would no longer buy Thai seafood and that that could cost the nation more than 200 billion baht a year.
[30]: 1 On 22 January 2018, the day prior to the release of HRW's report, the president of the Thai Fisheries Association met with Deputy Prime Minister Gen Chatchai Sarikulya to discuss the problem of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
[4]: 366 According to the Royal Thai Police's Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division, 52 Lao women forced into the sex trade in Thailand were rescued in 2015, most of them under 18 years of age.
"The problems of deception, tricking people to work as forced labour or in the sex industry are more prominent," according to Kritaya Archavanitkul, a professor at Mahidol University's Institute for Population and Social Research.
Many Rohingya refugees who escaped the political oppression in Myanmar were stuck at Thai immigration or were captured along the shore or had their boats pushed back to sea.
[citation needed] "The Rohingya were then transported across southern Thailand and held hostage in a series of camps hidden near the border with Malaysia until relatives paid thousands of dollars to release them".
In March 2014, 200 allegedly Uyghur people who had fled China due to the ongoing Xinjiang conflict, were also freed by Thai police from a human trafficking camp.
[43] At the local level, advocacy organizations must be included in the development of informational programs and awareness campaigns about the rights of trafficked persons, and how they can obtain help and services to meet their physical and mental health needs.
"[44] In April 2015, Thailand faced a threat of a trade ban from the European Commission for not taking sufficient measures to combat exploitation in the fishing industry.
For example, Thai Women of Tomorrow (TWT) has created a team of volunteer teachers who teach about the dangers of commercial sex industry and trafficking to local villages.
[4]: 366 Previous Thai anti-trafficking legislation that was used during the reporting period defined "trafficking" only in terms of sexual exploitation and allowed only females and children to be classified as victims eligible to receive shelter or social services from the government.
[citation needed] In April 2007, a Thai employer was sentenced to more than 10 years imprisonment for forced child labour in the first-ever conviction under Thailand's 1951 anti-slavery law.
[citation needed] In December, a Thai Criminal Court sentenced two traffickers to seven years imprisonment for luring a 15-year-old girl to engage in prostitution in Singapore under false pretences.
[citation needed] Corruption is still sometimes a problem with local police or immigration officials protecting brothels, seafood, and sweatshop facilities from raids and occasionally facilitating the movement of women into or through Thailand.
In March 2008, a team of labour ministry, immigration, police, and NGO representatives raided a shrimp processing factory in Samut Sakhon and found 300 Burmese migrant workers confined to the premises and working in exploitative conditions.
Police filed criminal charges against the owners of the shrimp processing factory within 24 hours and investigated the labour brokers who supplied the Burmese workers.
A Thai labour court awarded the equivalent of US$106,000 in damages to 66 trafficking victims rescued in the September 2006 raid of a separate shrimp processing factory in Samut Sakhon.
Department of Social Welfare officials and NGOs use the threat of punitive sanctions under the 1998 Labour Protection Act to negotiate settlements with abusive employers exploiting foreign trafficking victims in sweatshops and in domestic work.
[50] Corruption and complicity at the highest levels of the Thai government continue to impede investigatory and prosecutorial efforts as underscored by the flight in December 2015 of Thailand's most senior human trafficking investigator to Australia, where he will seek political asylum.
Major General Paween Pongsirin says his investigations into human trafficking implicated senior figures in the Thai police and military and he now fears for his life.
The trial is seen as an opportunity for Thailand to end the abuses and the collusion of high-ranking government and military officials who turn a blind eye to trafficking in return for under-the-table payments.
His determination has translated into a number of policy directives and measures addressing both the elimination of nurturing conditions and the immediate causes of trafficking of persons in Thailand.
A case in point includes nationwide registration of illegal migrant workers, more stringent regulation of vessels and labour in the fisheries sector, amendments and improvements of relevant laws.
The government allows all female trafficking victims, Thai and foreign, to receive shelter and social services pending repatriation to their country of origin or hometown.
