THAILAND TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS/LABOR DEVELOPMENTS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BANGKOK 001321 SIPDIS SENSITIVE DEPT FOR G/TIP, DRL/IL, PRM AND EAP/BCLTV LABOR FOR ILAB E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ELAB KCRM KWMN PHUM PREF PREL SMIG TH TIP SUBJECT: THAILAND TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS/LABOR DEVELOPMENTS REF: A. 04 BANGKOK 7573 ¶B. BANGKOK 628 AND PREVIOUS ¶1. (U) Summary. Senior Royal Thai police (RTP),accompanied by a post NGO anti-trafficking partner, traveled to Malaysia to enhance cooperation in countering the increasing cross-border trafficking of women and children. A low-ranking Thai policeman was convicted for trafficking a 14-year old girl to Malaysia in 2002. The RTP also arrested a major trafficker of Burmese men/boys onto commercial fishing trawlers. Some forced seamen end up marooned on an isolated Indonesian island. UN agencies based in Bangkok will advocate a special "amnesty" for illegal Burmese workers in tsunami-affected provinces. Thai officials denied press reports that pregnant migrant workers from Burma, Laos and Cambodia face deportation. A DRL/IL - funded project encourages a voluntary labor standard designed to help Thailand claim the reputation of a "clean labor" destination. End Summary. ¶2. Thai Police Investigate Trafficking to Malaysia -------------- -- (SBU) The Royal Thai police (RTP),in cooperation with the US NGO International Justice Mission (IJM),completed a six-month investigation of the trafficking of Thai and Burmese women and girls to Johor Bahru, Malaysia, near the border with Singapore. Several former victims provided information indicating that a single trafficker employed 70-80 women/girls as sex workers, including some who are underage and/or coerced. Thai, Burmese and Chinese women (from Yunnan province) are the primary victims. Ethnic Shan women from Burma are recruited from just across the Thai - Burma border, and enter Thailand at the northern Mae Sai crossing. Thai women lured from northern Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai are promised jobs in Bangkok. Both Burmese and Thais are brought by van or pick-up truck to the southern province of Hat Yai, an eight hundred mile journey. Some are then blindfolded during the onward trip to Johor Bahru. Upon arrival at a string of karaoke bars and brothels owned by the Malaysian trafficker, they are informed that they each owe about USD 1,600. One young Burmese woman took nine months, at five customers a day, to pay off the debt. On February 16, a team of senior RTP officials (accompanied by IJM) traveled to Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru to present their findings to the Malaysian police's anti-trafficking unit. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Bangkok has agreed to assist in the repatriation of any Thai or Burmese victims discovered in Johor Bahru. ¶3. Conviction of Thai Policeman in Trafficking Case -------------- --- (U) On February 8, a court in southern Songkhla province sentenced a low-ranking Thai policeman to 10 years in prison for his part in a trafficking ring which attempted to sell a 14-year old into sexual exploitation. The police lance corporal, and two others, "purchased" the young Thai girl and brought her to Malaysia in 2002. A Thai woman was also sentenced to 16 years for her part in the scheme. Charges were brought under the Penal Code and the 1997 Anti-Trafficking Act. ¶4. Trafficking of Burmese Men/Boys onto Fishing Trawlers -------------- -------------- (SBU) The Seafarer's Union of Burma (SUB) reported on February 16 that a group of ten Burmese males, including three minors, was confined on a fishing trawler in the port of Maha Chai, Samut Sakhon province, about 40 miles from Bangkok on the Gulf of Thailand. The migrants entered Thailand illegally four days before. They were promised jobs in factories by a well-known Burmese smuggler/trafficker, but were delivered directly to the vessel, and told they were obligated to work on board for four and a half years in Indonesian fishing waters. The ethnic Karen men/boys, reportedly first time migrants to Thailand and easily intimidated, wished to depart but were controlled by four guards posted around the boat. Once the trawler left port, the trafficker was to receive 130,000 baht (USD 3,421) from the Thai captain. The impressed seamen would have to re-pay this sum from meager monthly wages. On February 18, post provided the information to the RTP trafficking in persons unit, and on the same day police arrested the trafficker and owner of the vessel. The dragooning of Burmese sailors appears to occur regularly in Chonburi, Songkhla and Samut Sakhon provinces on the Gulf of Thailand, and in Ranong on the Andaman Sea. Surplus or uncooperative seamen are often stranded on the isolated island of Tual in Indonesia's Banda Sea. The SUB estimates the current Burmese population there at about 2,000. In December, UN officials interviewed several returnees from Tual, who alleged Indonesian immigration police complicity in a system of re-trafficking abandoned Burmese seamen onto other Thai trawlers short of crews. The men complained of bitter working conditions, including non-payment of wages and beatings. Some told of isolated incidents of murders by the captains. ¶5. Child Sex Tourism Component in ILEA Training -------------- (U) The International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA),a joint US - Thai regional training facility in Bangkok, presented a course between January 31 - February 11 on "Dealing with Sex Offenders". Participants included 54 mid-level police and immigration officials from Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Australia, Brunei, the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong S.A.R., and Indonesia. The training, which received good reviews by participants, included a component on child sex tourism conducted by a FBI specialist. The UK government provided funding for the course. ¶6. UN Advocacy on Tsunami-affected Migrants -------------- (SBU) A joint study by the Bangkok regional United Nations (UN) "country team" and the International Organization for Migration on the plight of Burmese migrants affected by the tsunami was released on February 7 (Ref B.) The study SIPDIS concluded that some 7,000 Burmese workers (not including dependents) were affected, either through loss of life, health, livelihood or belongings. Little information is available on the location of thousands of migrants who simply disappeared after the disaster, although hundreds are believed to be sheltered in make shift dwellings on hillsides and in rubber plantations in the six affected southern provinces. Despite some NGO efforts, food, water and health care provision for this population remains poor. The UN/IOM report argues for a moratorium on arrests/deportations of migrants in affected areas. Personal security of the migrants must be assured before other problems can be addressed: loss of employment, replacement of lost work permits, access to health care, and identifying the dead. The study's recommendations, to be presented by the regional UN Resident Coordinator to the RTG Ministry of Foreign Affairs the week of February 20, include a special "amnesty" for illegal Burmese in tsunami-affected provinces. An NGO network assisting the Burmese reports replacement of work permits is extremely slow, hampered by difficulties in providing information to the widely scattered groups, and migrant anxieties about arrest when contacting RTG authorities. As a result, only 93 replacement cards had been issued as of February 14. Employers in the area are anxious to have the migrants remain to assist in rehabilitation of the fishing industry, and to fill construction sites in resort areas damaged by the December 26 tsunami. ¶7. Pregnant Migrant Workers to Face Deportation? -------------- (SBU) In July 2004, the RTG conducted an open registration for migrants from Burma, Laos and Cambodia already resident in Thailand. Almost 1.3 million workers and dependents registered, allowing them a twelve-month period of legal residence in Thailand to conduct health checks and find employers with MOL - verified needs. By January, 692,000 workers and dependents had received check-ups, with about 1.5 percent diagnosed with contagious diseases that will force their deportation. Over 9,000 female workers were found to be pregnant, and press reports in recent weeks suggested they would be deported as well. On February 7, the MOL Deputy Permanent Secretary responded to Laboff concerns by asserting that "No formal decision had been made - it is only a suggestion," to forcibly return the pregnant women. The suggestion appears to come from the RTG National Security Council (NSC),the lead agency on a national-level Alien Labor Management Committee. (The NSC has argued in the past that the presence of many stateless children poses a long-term security threat to Thailand.) The National Human Rights Commission, established under the reformist 1997 Constitution, has also objected to the deportation of pregnant migrants as a violation of a constitutional provision that asserts "the human dignity, rights and liberty of a person are protected." A plan to have Burmese officials provide identity documents to the 906,000 registered Burmese in Thailand is months behind schedule, with little likelihood of significant progress before the July 2005 expiration of the program. At that time, migrants who have not been matched with an employer and provided with ID cards by their home government are slated for deportation. ¶8. US Anti-Sweatshop Project -------------- (U) Laboff opened a State/DRL - funded seminar, "Preventing Abuses in Sweatshops" (PASS),in southern Surat Thani province on February 1st. Training on the MOL-promoted voluntary labor code, Thailand Labor Standard 8001, was provided to mid-level labor officials from fourteen southern provinces. TLS 8001 (closely based on its namesake, the international SAI 8000 voluntary code) is a unique effort by the RTG to establish Thailand as a "clean labor" destination for foreign buyers and investors. Since 2003, some 320 factories in Thailand have been certified under TLS 8001. Implemented by the Solidarity Center, the PASS project has trained 382 workers, managers and MOL officials on TLS 8001 standards and monitoring throughout the country since November 2004. Other PASS activities include training legally mandated worker safety committees in various aspects of occupational safety and health (OSH) in larger automobile, chemical and electrical appliance industries. Those committees will then train the workers. Next step: expanding OSH training to smaller enterprises, those with less than 50 workers, where most sweatshop conditions are found. In April, the PASS project will open a legal aid office in the Thai-Burma border town of Mae Sot, where tens of thousands of migrants work in exploitative conditions in textile, garment and jewelry factories. The office will provide assistance to registered migrants who wish to make complaints (such as unpaid minimum wages) under the 1998 Labor Protection Act. ARVIZU