Human trafficking: More Women, Children Being victimised

AsiaOne ran this article by The Nation/Asia News Network on 30 June 2009:

Human trafficking: More women, children being victimised

THAILAND - More and more women and children are becoming part of human-trafficking scams, a report from the Foundation for Women (FFW) said yesterday.

"With countries like Laos having a very male-oriented society, male family members force women or children to shoulder bread-winning responsibilities. Since children and women are weak, they are not allowed to make decisions and instead are taken advantage of or violated by human traffickers," Panjit Kaewsawang, a social worker with the FFW, said at a seminar yesterday.

"Some female victims in Laos cannot even use the money given to them by the FFW to bring their lives back in order. Instead the money is used for other purposes such as a relative's wedding, the purchase of a tractor or a satellite dish," she added.

She studied the lives of victims in Laos, Cambodia and Burma after they were rescued from a life of drudgery.

Panjit said she found that mothers and children were often abandoned, which put them at further risk. She also found that some Burmese refugees on the Thai border kept selling their children even after they had been rescued from human traffickers.

The seminar, held at Bangkok's Asia Hotel, was organised to study the problem of human trafficking and to find a way of assisting victims after they had been rescued.

Meanwhile, Matthana Chetamee, the FFW's project coordinator in Thailand, has discovered that illegal agents held a lot of power in certain communities, which not only threatened people's safety but also made it difficult to corner them.

"The agents will have donated large amounts of money to temples, thereby gaining the respect and trust of the locals. Victims who try to take these agents to court are usually condemned by their communities," Matthana said.

Another problem that Thai human-trafficking victims face is that some relevant government officials do not take them seriously.

"Many have told me that every time they asked for financial assistance, they were made to feel like beggars," Matthana said.

FFW's president Siriporn Skrobanek recommended that both governmental and non-governmental organisations jointly approach local administrative organisations and have them take part in making locals understand what happens to human-trafficking victims and encourage them to fight against the illegal agents.

She also called on relevant officials to pay serious attention to victims. "People accused of human trafficking out on bail should not be allowed to go overseas," Siriporn added.