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10 Facts About Human Trafficking in Thailand

Facts about Human Trafficking in Thailand

Characterized by breathtaking beaches, delicious food and stunning temples, Thailand is often called the “Land of Smiles.” As the number one tourist destination in Southeast Asia, it is an extremely popular place for millions of people to visit every year. Unfortunately, with convenient routes that funnel women and children in and out of the country, Thailand has also become a popular destination for human traffickers. Here are 10 facts about human trafficking in Thailand.

10 Facts about Human Trafficking in Thailand

  1. Human trafficking by boat is common – First up in this list of facts about human trafficking in Thailand is the method of transportation. The fishing industry is a major asset to Thailand’s economy, so many ships go out to sea to fish. These boats sometimes do not come back for up to three years at a time. This makes it nearly impossible for authorities to monitor the activity of boats. Thus, many traffickers prefer to travel through the seas, despite the risks it may pose on the trafficked victims.
  2. Thailand’s geographical location makes it particularly vulnerable to traffickers – Land routes from neighboring countries into Thailand are not very well secured and corruption is prevalent. This makes it much easier for human traffickers to smuggle people into the country.
  3. Minorities and migrants are high-risk for being trafficked – Among those at the greatest risk for being trafficked in Thailand are foreign migrants, ethnic minorities and stateless persons. They may experience various abuses including the withholding of identity and work documents and debt bondage. They could even be subject to illegal salary deductions. Language barriers and low socioeconomic status further contribute to the vulnerability of these populations.
  4. There is no one “type” of trafficking offender – Profiles of traffickers vary considerably. They include both males and females, Thai and non-Thai nationals. They can be from organized networks with the ability to produce or buy fake documents and avoid immigration requirements. Additionally, traffickers can act individually, seizing opportunities to profit from coercing vulnerable persons into situations of exploitation.
  5. There are various forms of trafficking networks – Trafficking networks can be well-structured and work across borders through the use of brokers. However, most trafficking cases are facilitated by individual and local level networks of friends, family members and former victims that often begin with voluntary migration.
  6. Most victims of human trafficking in Thailand are, in fact, of Thai nationality – The majority of trafficking victims identified in Thailand are Thai nationals, trafficked both domestically and internationally. Migrants from neighboring countries make up a large portion of identified trafficked persons in Thailand. However, many more victims from neighboring countries are not identified. These victims often willingly migrate from their home countries in search of better opportunities. Some of their home countries include China, Vietnam, Russia, Uzbekistan and Fiji.
  7. Victims are often trafficked into Thailand through established migration routes – These victims come from neighboring states with significantly lower levels of socioeconomic development. Facilitated by long and porous borders, irregular migration is a common trend in meeting the labor demands of low-skilled employment sectors.
  8. Trafficking in Thailand is a $12 billion industry – This makes it a bigger cash earner than the country’s drug trade, according to the International Labor Organization.
  9. More than 900 victims of human trafficking have been rescued in 2019 – According to official statistics released by the Thai anti-trafficking department, since the beginning of 2019, the police have rescued 974 victims of human trafficking. Most of the victims were from Myanmar.
  10. The hotel industry has taken initiative in combating this issue – A French multinational hotel group set up an employee training program to identify and address sex tourism in 2001. Additionally, Airbnb works with the Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Campaign. which provides education about human trafficking. Airbnb also works with No Traffick Ahead, a coalition for combating human trafficking.

Efforts to Eliminate Human Trafficking in Thailand

These facts about human trafficking in Thailand reflect the severity of this problem on a global level. The Thai government has pledged to continue fighting the human trafficking epidemic in their country. In the last year, it partnered with airlines and charities to warn visitors against involvement in trafficking. Subsequently, they urged them to spot and report potential cases.

UNICEF has been particularly active in calling attention to child exploitation and in addressing its root causes. This organization provides economic support to families so that their children will not be at risk of sexual exploitation; it improves access to education and is a strong advocate for children’s rights.

Progress in reducing the human trafficking trade has been made in recent years. However, to make a widespread impact, the efforts of these nongovernmental organizations need to be aided by urgent government action. This action is essential to protect Thai citizens and migrant workers.

– GiGi Hogan
Photo: Flickr

2017’s Worst Countries for Human Trafficking

2017's Worst Countries for Human Trafficking
In June 2017, the U.S. Department of State released its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report indicating the worst countries for human trafficking. The Department ranks countries on a three-tier scale.

Tier 1 governments are those which acknowledge the trafficking problem and are making efforts to curb it. Contrarily, Tier 3 countries rank among the worst countries for human trafficking; they make little or no effort of bringing trafficking issues to justice.

 

The 10 Worst Countries for Human Trafficking

 

1. Belarus
Belarusian trafficking victims mostly remain in Belarus or Russia. Criminals smuggle other victims to Poland, Turkey and various countries in Eurasia and the Middle East. Belarusian women seeking foreign employment in the adult entertainment and hotel industries often fall prey to sex traffickers.

A 2006 Belarusian presidential decree condemns mothers and fathers (who have had their parental rights revoked) to compulsory labor; the government retains 70 percent of their wages.

2. Central African Republic (CAR)
Most human trafficking victims in the Central African Republic (CAR) are citizens exploited within the country. Young women in urban centers are at great risk of being entered into the commercial sex trade. Traffickers coerce girls into marriages and force them into domestic servitude, sexual slavery and international sex trafficking.

The International Office of Migration has developed a community awareness campaign for at-risk communities and individuals to improve awareness of human trafficking. This program especially targets internally displaced people (IDPs), returnees and host populations in the Central African Republic (CAR).

3. China
China reemerges on this year’s worst countries for human trafficking list, slipping from Tier 2 to Tier 3 in the 2017 TIP Report. In China, traffickers subject men, women and children to forced labor and the sex trade. Traffickers target individuals with developmental disabilities as well as children whose parents have migrated to the cities and left them with relatives. There are also instances of the abduction of African and Asian men to work under state-sponsored forced labor conditions on fishing vessels.

4. Eritrea
Eritrea is no newcomer to the Tier 3 rating. Many Eritrean young women and girls travel to Gulf States, Israel, Sudan or South Sudan for domestic work but instead find themselves victims of sex trafficking rings. International criminal groups kidnap vulnerable Eritreans living in or near refugee camps, particularly in Sudan.

Members of these crime syndicates then transport their captives to Libya and detain them for ransom. Eritrean military and police officers often abet trafficking crimes along the Sudanese border, thus maintaining Eritrea’s status as one of the worst countries for human trafficking.

5. Iran
Iranian criminal organizations reportedly subject women and children to sex trafficking, not only inside Iran but also in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR), Afghanistan, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Europe.

Traffickers target Iranian girls between the ages of 13 and 17 for trade abroad. Captors press the youngest girls into domestic service until their kidnappers deem them old enough for use in child sex trafficking.

6. North Korea
North Korea holds an estimated 80,000 to 120,000 prisoners in camps, many charged with no crime. Without medical care and food, the detainees often die, their bodies incinerated in furnaces and dumped in mass graves.

Government oppression prompts North Koreans to flee the country, making them vulnerable to human trafficking in destination countries. North Korea’s forced labor camps and the death penalty fuel trafficking in neighboring China. Ironically, captured refugees returned to North Korea to experience punitive action – labor camps or death.

7. Russia
Between 5 and 12 million migrants are working in Russia in conditions of slavery, in positions at garment factories, as public transport drivers, and in construction and agriculture. Russian officials facilitate the entry of migrants into the country for exploitation. Other officials receive bribes not to investigate human trafficking crimes. Overall, the government has not undertaken efforts to protect human trafficking victims.

8. Sudan
Sudanese law enforcement agents are often involved in, and profit from, child sex trafficking rings. Sudanese law prohibits the recruitment of children. However, youth remain vulnerable to recruitment and use as combatants by Sudanese non-governmental armed groups and militias.

Darfur is a favored route to Libya, as the porous border and lax security allow traffickers to operate with impunity across the region. Sudanese police and border patrol purportedly facilitate abductions of Eritrean nationals and permit the transport of potential victims across borders without intervention.

9. Syria
The circumstances in Syria have deteriorated throughout the ongoing civil war with sub-state armed groups of varying ideologies exerting control over vast geographic areas of the country’s territory.

In December 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) released public guidelines on how to seize, forcibly hold, and sexually abuse female slaves. ISIS soldiers routinely subject women and girls from minority groups to forced marriage, domestic servitude, systematic rape and sexual violence.

ISIS requires Syrian girls to submit to virginity tests before selling them in “slave bazaars” and transferring them to various Syrian provinces and other countries for sexual slavery. Throughout 2016, displaced Syrians continued to utilize smugglers to provide illegal passage to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea, putting the Syrians at risk of being trafficked.

10. Venezuela
Among those trafficked out of Venezuela, 55 percent are adults, 26 percent are young girls and 19 percent are young boys. Lured by promises of high paying jobs, they instead are sent to countries in the Caribbean, where traffickers force them into the sex trade or domestic servitude.

Venezuela continuously ranks as one of the worst countries for human trafficking as they do little to prevent or punish trafficking. They have strict laws surrounding it, but the prosecution of the crime is rare. Since 2013, Venezuela has convicted only three people under human trafficking laws.

 

The Good News

 

Overall, the 2017 TIP Report listed 23 Tier 3 nations as the worst countries for human trafficking. However, the governments of Haiti, Gambia, Grenadines, Djibouti, Cote d’Ivoire, Costa Rica, Burma, Algeria, Malaysia, Maldives, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea and Qatar moved up in the rankings. St. Lucia, Saint Vincent, Seychelles, the Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Ukraine and Zambia also deserve recognition for demonstrated improvement.

Perhaps the most encouraging data is that the 2017 report assigned 36 countries, including the United States, to the Tier 1 category. Guyana deserves special praise, as its ranking rose from Tier 2 to Tier 1.

– Heather Hopkins

Photo: Flickr