What the slavery report didn't mention on Thailand

Thailand remains on the Tier 2 Watch List, granted a second waiver from an automatic downgrade to Tier 3. This wasn’t a surprise. Thailand is well known as a destination country for migrant children and adults in search of better economic conditions. An unknown number of migrants and Thais find themselves in conditions of forced labour and sexual exploitation often related to debt bondage. Inadequate protection and the collusion of officials with perpetrators, as well as the slow response of the criminal justice system, makes slavery highly attractive for criminal networks. 

The TIP report, first published in 2001, is based on the TVPA. Many experts see the TVPA as the most extended anti-trafficking legislation in the world. In contrast with the UN Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime, the TIP Report has forced many governments to develop national policies to tackle sexual exploitation, forced labour and other forms of trafficking. The reason is that under the US sanctions regime, unilateral and multilateral sanctions may be applied, such as denying US foreign assistance to governments that don’t make a significant effort to comply with the TIP minimum standards. Additional sanctions include US opposition or non-assistance at the level of international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund and multilateral development banks like the World Bank. For some sceptics, these possible sanctions are seen as the driving force in addressing the issue in Thailand.

Within Asean, other countries still on the Tier 2 Watch List include Myanmar and Laos, while Malaysia and Cambodia have been downgraded to this list for the first time. Singapore, Laos, Brunei, Indonesia and Vietnam remain on the Tier 2 list. 

The TIP Report is an important and useful tool to compare human trafficking as defined by the US. For academic researchers, this report can be valuable if it goes with qualitative, up-to-date research to allow meaningful evaluation and analysis of detected trends in human trafficking. Unfortunately for Thailand, with the exception of some high-profile media cases and statistics from the Thai government, the 2013 TIP Report doesn’t add significant information in comparison to previous reports.

While forced labour on fishing boats – which escape all government control – have been globally under-researched, and extreme cases have recently been highlighted, the trafficking and sexual exploitation of children also deserves attention

What the report didn’t mention is that the recruitment and exploitation of children in Thailand often has a geographic and ethnic basis. While in central and southern Thailand migrants are more susceptible to different kinds of exploitation, northern Thailand sees more child sex trafficking. Evidence-based reports in 2012 mention children from Laos being repeatedly forced into prostitution in Prae and Nan provinces, while Shan children are forced to work in Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai provinces. Karen and Burmese children are forced into labour in the border areas near Tak. Children from Laos, Myanmar and ethnic minorities are often forced into domestic labour in Thai households, restaurants and shops, and on construction sites in Chiang Mai, Phayao, Lampang and Tak provinces. Children and adults from temporary refugee shelters in Mae Sot, Chiang Mai and Nong Khai are re-recruited by brokers and sent to work in factories, homes and brothels in Bangkok, Samut Sakhon and Chonburi.

The 2013 report authorised a final waiver for Thailand and for Afghanistan. This means that in the 2014 report, Thailand won’t remain on the Tier 2 Watch List. In Southeast Asia, Malaysia is also facing an automatic downgrade, which might place it next year with countries like China, North Korea and Uzbekistan.

This year the report did not describe clearly and in detail the basis for condemnation of Thailand on the Tier 2 Watch List. Having a written plan for minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking will not be reached soon and is too vague to be taken seriously by academic experts in the field. A comparative description of the reasons why Thailand has been put in this particular tier and not up or downgraded is thus recommended. 

There are other suggestions and recommendations for Thailand that should be made before the next report: 

First, there is so much we still don’t know on the current trends in exploitation of people in Thailand. Most reports contain recycled data from previous and outdated research. In contrary to the mass donations that flow to NGOs, academic research on human trafficking in Thailand hasn’t been funded adequately. In order to get an accurate and realistic image of enslavement practices, reliable empirical research is needed in Thailand to back up government data and NGO reports. 

Second, the 2013 TIP Report in Thailand focuses almost entirely on the victims and doesn’t address the demand side – for instance, the adults who are the end users in sexual exploitation and the gangs that traffick and supply the victims. 

Third, education is the long-term key to countering the trafficking and exploitation of people, and will enable future generations to take different attitudes towards vulnerable women, children and migrants.

An additional suggestion, indirectly related to prevention in Thailand, is the control of NGOs focusing on human trafficking. The Ministry of Social Security and Development should strictly control the NGOs working with children and the victims of human trafficking. Foreign and Thai NGOs should be registered according the NGO foundation legislation in Thailand. An NGO that just rents an office or house and uses children for fundraising is fraudulent and obstructs the fight against human trafficking. This kind of avtivity only makes children secondary victims of exploitation.

Despite its flaws, the TIP Report remains a valuable instrument and puts the tackling of modern-day slavery high on the agenda. Whether or not it is a political instrument, hopefully it will serve as the final wake-up call for Thai authorities to prioritise the issue by implementing promised written plans. 

 

 

Sam Derbali is a PhD researcher in criminology, justice administration and society at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Mahidol University. For comments: [email protected]