Human Trafficking is Alive and Well in Thailand

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand. Bangkok. March 13, 2012. I was not aware that the US State Department issues a Trafficking in Persons (“TIP”) report in which it ranks countries based on their efforts and effectiveness in combating the trafficking of persons. The problem in Thailand is huge, involving 2-3 million people from neighboring Laos, Cambodia and Burma, who come, or are brought (some kidnapped), to Thailand to find work. In its most recent TIP report, the US ranked Thailand as a “tier-two watchlist” country because of Thailand’s failure to comply with even minimum standards to address trafficking in persons. If Thailand fails to improve, it will be downgraded to a “tier-three” country, where it will be in the company of such countries as North Korea. Last year, the UN's Special Rapporteur for Trafficking in Persons blasted Thailand for "weak and fragmented" policy and legal framework on trafficking, deep routed corruption in law enforcement, the brokerage network and poor victim identification. The current Thai government has not responded to the UN.

Knowledgeable panelists at the FCCT described various aspects of the trafficking problem in Thailand, citing examples of horrible abuse of persons in the shrimp fishing and construction industries, prostitution, and babies and children brought to the streets of Bangkok to beg. Although there are many levels of the Thai government and industry responsible for this cruel situation, Human Rights Watch Asia Deputy Director Phil Robertson advanced that the kernel of the problem was police corruption because, according to Robertson, the Thai police are involved at all levels of illegal human trafficking. This is one aspect of corruption that is impossible to excuse as a mere “cost of doing business,” which is how some commentators describe governmental corruption.

The 2012 TIP report is due out in June and it will be watched to see if Thailand has taken sufficient remedial steps so that it is not degraded to the category of the world’s worst offenders.


(Above photo left to right)

* Mr. Phil Robertson, Asia Deputy Director, Human Rights Watch

* Mr. Arthon Piboonthanapatana, Secretary General, Thai Frozen Foods Association

* Mr. Eaklak Loomchomkhae, Head of Trafficking, Mirror Foundation

Interpreter

* Mr. Chutintorn Gongsakdi, Deputy Director General, International Organisations, Thailand Ministry of Foreign Affairs