Strict measures in place to tackle

The Department of Provincial Administration has been assigned to propel forward the seven-step road map, which includes driving the policy for implementation in tambon- and community-levels; preventing such crimes particularly through intelligence-gathering; strictly enforcing the laws against such cases; protecting damaged persons and witnesses; and promoting public participation, he said. 

The Interior Ministry and related agencies began the process of registering migrant workers from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia in 2014 and this year had 1,050,068 of them renew their legal status so as to remain in Thailand for another year pending the nationality identification process, he said. Such a renewal process was also gone through by 80,418 migrant workers in the fishery industry, while the ministry was also working on providing minorities and stateless persons in Thailand the correct status. 

For human-trafficking suppression, besides additional channels for complaints and information gathering, tambon-level operative teams were also active in inspecting for aliens or human trafficking in their jurisdictions. Special task forces, including provincial administrative officials and related agencies, were also established to crack down and arrest suspects especially in risky areas such as fishery, industrial factories and entertainment venues, he said. This year, 16 cases were prosecuted covering 160 victims. 

A total of 5,758 business establishments in 67 province were inspected under the mission. 

Anupong said he had instructed officials to tackle human trafficking crimes and suppression strictly, continuously and efficiently in keeping with international standards to rid the country of such crimes.