Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09CHIANGMAI60
2009-04-30 09:45:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Consulate Chiang Mai
Cable title:  

STATE DEPT GRANTEE HIGHLIGHTS RISKS OF TRAFFICKING TO

Tags:  KTIP KWMN PHUM TH 
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VZCZCXRO3017
RR RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHCHI #0060/01 1200945
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 300945Z APR 09
FM AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1032
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI 1114
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CHIANG MAI 000060 

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR G/TIP, EAP AND DRL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KTIP KWMN PHUM TH
SUBJECT: STATE DEPT GRANTEE HIGHLIGHTS RISKS OF TRAFFICKING TO
VULNERABLE POPULATIONS

CHIANG MAI 00000060 001.2 OF 002


Sensitive but unclassified; please handle accordingly.

------------------------------------
Summary and Comment
------------------------------------

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CHIANG MAI 000060

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR G/TIP, EAP AND DRL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KTIP KWMN PHUM TH
SUBJECT: STATE DEPT GRANTEE HIGHLIGHTS RISKS OF TRAFFICKING TO
VULNERABLE POPULATIONS

CHIANG MAI 00000060 001.2 OF 002


Sensitive but unclassified; please handle accordingly.

--------------
Summary and Comment
--------------


1. (SBU) Consulate staff spent the night in a hill tribe
village April 7-8 to monitor an NGO's implementation of a
$20,000 grant it had received from the Department's Women's
Issues Fund to conduct anti-trafficking-in-persons campaigns.
Village authorities and the NGO have different views of the
extent of the trafficking problem there. With the grant, this
NGO - the New Life Center (NLC) -- has carried out the campaign
among over 7,000 highlanders in some 30 villages, far surpassing
the target of 2,500 people it had set as a target in its grant
proposal.


2. (SBU) Comment: Mission Thailand has a strong relationship
with the New Life Center, founded and run by American Baptist
missionaries. The Ambassador has visited its Chiang Mai
shelter, as has Mrs. John, who has also visited and donated
books to the Center's Chiang Rai shelter. Commensurate with
G/TIP's current focus on labor trafficking, we note that the NLC
has chosen trafficking for labor exploitation as the key theme
of the campaign it is carrying out with the grant. We encourage
the Department to give favorable consideration to further
funding requests by the NLC to support this campaign and its
other activities. End Summary and Comment.

-------------- --------------
American NGO Focuses on Labor Trafficking
-------------- --------------


3. (U) On April 7, New Life Center staff took us to an Akha
hill tribe village in northern Thailand's second-largest
province of Chiang Rai to observe a campaign the Center is
carrying out to prevent trafficking-in-persons with a grant it
had received from the Department's Women's Issues Fund (WIF).
The NLC's interactive approach consists of preparing short stage
productions in local hill tribe languages about the risks of
trafficking, and acting them out with Center residents and
staff. This particular village is composed of three distinct
groups broken down by religion: animists, Catholics, and other
Christian denominations. All three groups were well-represented
at the production; the audience totaled about 300 people.


4. (U) In the NLC-produced drama, two hill tribe villagers are

promised jobs in South Korea by an acquaintance. When they get
to Korea, they find themselves subjected to forced labor in an
isolated agricultural setting. Their documents are confiscated,
and they are not given adequate food and water. When they ask
if they can leave, they are told they are in debt for all the
expenses the company incurred to get them to Korea, and that if
they don't have money they have to repay the debt by working.
Back in their home village in Thailand, a mother whose daughter
had left for Korea laments that she no longer receives money.
After the passage of several months or years, the women are able
to escape and return to their village, though the production
does not go into detail about how.


5. (U) Before the drama, NLC staff and residents sang songs and
played interactive games with younger spectators. They also
asked the adults questions regarding their awareness of the
risks of trafficking. Immediately after the performance, they
asked many of the same questions again to see what the audience
had learned. Responses indicated that the event was an
effective educational tool. The entire spectacle ended with
performances of traditional Akha songs and dances in typical
Akha dress. The NLC views this as a key component of the
campaign, noting that it attracts villagers who otherwise might
not attend if trafficking were the sole topic covered.


6. (U) Since it began carrying out activities under the grant
in June 2008, the NLC has presented the drama in over 30 hill
tribe villages throughout northern Thailand, and estimates it
has reached between 7,000-8,000 highlanders. This far exceeds
the NLC's target of 2,500 set out in the grant proposal it had
submitted to the Department.

-------------- --------------
The Extent of the Problem: Whom to Believe?
-------------- --------------


7. (SBU) According to one of the village's elected
representatives, who sits on the district's administrative
council, the village does not have a problem either with drug or
human trafficking. Villagers commented that many female
residents leave the village to work in Pattaya and other cities
in Thailand, and one villager said many of them do not return.

CHIANG MAI 00000060 002.2 OF 002


(Comment: We do not know in what industry these women sought
work, or if they did so involuntarily. Even if they were sex
workers, we cannot conclude that they are trafficking victims;
in Thailand, including in the city of Pattaya, many commercial
sex workers are willing participants.)



8. (SBU) Separately, NGO workers in the village noted that it
is much better off economically than other villages in the same
area, and that just 10-15 years ago, it was much poorer than it
is today, with housing that was much more rudimentary. They
also spoke of vehicles swiftly entering and departing the
village in the middle of the night as if they were trying to
hide their presence, but could not explicitly link these
observations to any illicit activity.

-------------- --------------
Strange Tale of Buddhist Novice Induction
-------------- --------------


9. (SBU) One anecdote we heard highlighted a lack of awareness
of the risks of exploitation. About a week before our trip,
about 12 boys from the village were taken by a Buddhist monk to
a monastery, where they were apparently forcibly inducted as
novices. According to the villagers (none of whom are
Buddhist),the monk lured them there by promising to take them
to Chiang Rai City for an outing. While at the monastery, the
boys were treated as typical novices: heads shaved, forced to
pray, sought food donations with monks, and carried out routine
maintenance on monastery grounds, such as picking up trash and
cleaning. The father of one of the boys told us he didn't think
much of their absence, since his son had said he'd be with the
monk in Chiang Rai. (Note: many Thai boys serve as novices,
informally called `wat boys," during the March-May summer
vacation. Parents often send them for stints lasting up to two
months, and there are government programs supporting novice
stays at Buddhist wats. We do not have further details about
this particular wat, the monk in question, or the incident, and
are seeking additional details from the NLC. Nonetheless, the
incident is surprising given that none of the villagers are
known to practice Buddhism.) NGO and UN contacts we met with on
April 29 expressed surprise, saying this was the first such
incident they had heard of involving non-Buddhist children.


10. (SBU) Though the boys with whom we spoke did not report any
other abuses, one of the 12 boys drowned in a river near the
monastery and died. According to the other children, several of
them were playing in the river, and the deceased had managed to
save the lives of others before succumbing. Although he was the
only child who did not return safely to the village, the
children told us they were not the only boys taken to the
monastery against their will. One with whom we spoke estimated
there were some 20 other boys from other villages forcibly
inducted as novices at the same monastery. During our visit,
the deceased boy's father went to report the entire incident to
the police. However, he did not return prior to our departure,
and was therefore unable to give us an update on any impending
investigation into the matter.


11. (SBU) We subsequently learned from NGO contacts that the
monk who took the boys to the monastery is now residing in the
village with his mother. Our contacts also told us two more
senior monks went to the village and gave some $600 to the boy's
family to assist with funeral expenses. The villagers warned
the monks not to take children from there in the future without
the knowledge of their parents. Our contacts told us the family
of the deceased boy is unlikely to press charges due to the
monks' gesture of kindness and the family's belief that doing so
would not allow his spirit to rest in peace.


12. (U) This cable was coordinated with Embassy Bangkok.
MOORE