[INDOCHINA] Human Trafficking

[steveluv]

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Asia-Insight/Cambodia-holds-back-Vietnam-and-Thailand-in-trafficking-prevention?utm_campaign=GL_asia_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=NA_newsletter&utm_content=article_link&del_type=1&pub_date=20220816190000&seq_num=2&si=44594

In its latest Trafficking in Persons report, the U.S. State Department downgraded Vietnam and Cambodia to its bottom tier and put Indonesia on a watchlist.   © Illustration by Hiroko Oshima

Cambodia holds back Vietnam and Thailand in trafficking prevention
Porous borders, corruption preclude collective progress
FRANCESCA REGALADO, LIEN HOANG and SHOICHIRO TAGUCHI, Nikkei staff writersAugust 16, 2022 06:00 JST

BANGKOK/HO CHI MINH CITY/TOKYO -- Geography has helped Thailand and Vietnam compete for a large share of investment flowing out of China. But it has also thrown a wrench in their plans as trafficking persists along Southeast Asia's porous borders, especially in their shared neighbor Cambodia.

In its latest Trafficking in Persons report, the U.S. State Department downgraded Vietnam and Cambodia to its bottom tier and put Indonesia on a watchlist. Governments fearful of losing U.S. investment and economic aid are typically motivated to aim for the first or second tiers. At risk of falling into the third tier, Thailand spent the past year improving agency coordination and prosecuting officials complicit in human trafficking.

"Whenever the U.S. talks about this, there will be feedback to the Thai government and they want to work harder," said Jaruwat Jinmonca, vice president of Immanuel Foundation, an anti-trafficking NGO based in Chiang Mai. "If the ranking's too low, the government will speed up their work."

The report came in the nick of time for Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha. In the last hours of a parliamentary censure debate last month against his government, Prayuth was able to bring Thailand's rise in the rankings to his defense. But Thailand's upgrade provided no relief to Namtip, a 15-year-old girl who spent two months in Cambodian custody after being trafficked from Thailand -- or the more than 3,300 other victims counted in the report.

"The law in each country is different," said Surachate Hakparn, assistant commissioner in charge of anti-trafficking for the Royal Thai Police. "We can help people who were trafficked into Thailand more easily than getting Thais back from overseas."

Ging, 26, borrowed money to pay her way out of a trafficked labor camp in Poipet, Cambodia. (Photo by Francesca Regalado)

As corporate interest in environmental, social and governance issues grows, developed countries have been monitoring human rights violations. In the U.S., a law that allows for import injunctions on products made with forced labor has been in effect since 2016. The European Union is expected to announce a similar ban this year.

"Business and human rights issues are recognized as a common challenge among developed countries," said Susumu Tanaka, senior economist and leader of the business and human rights unit of the Japan External Trade Organization. As long as cases of human trafficking continue to exist, "those countries will have to consider the possibility of being left out of the global supply chain."

In Thailand, trafficking of migrants from Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia is rampant in sectors such as agriculture, food processing, fishing, tourism and entertainment. A major step forward was enforcing rules against forced labor as anti-trafficking laws. Prosecutions and convictions slowed last year, which police attribute to the COVID-19 pandemic, but investigations increased from 133 in 2020 to 188 in 2021, and are expected to double this year.

Surachate's division received a 73 million-baht ($2 million) budget this fiscal year to address migrant labor and human trafficking. This was part of the Royal Thai Police's 32.8 billion baht annual budget, and allocations for anti-trafficking efforts to other agencies.

But for all its efforts and resources, Thailand cannot do anything about the lack of political will and resources of its southeastern neighbor, Cambodia. Open terrain, hills and rivers make up the 817-kilometer border, making it difficult to patrol and easy to cross. Cambodia has been demoted to Tier 3 this year as endemic corruption continues to hamper anti-trafficking efforts. The port city of Sihanoukville, in particular, has become a base for syndicates that traffic people to run online scams.

In downgrading Vietnam in the TIP report, the U.S. said the country didn't do enough to identify and help victims, while convictions of traffickers declined for five straight years. The report said some officials allegedly facilitated forced labor in Saudi Arabia, while others allegedly harassed accusers in efforts to silence them.

Vietnam said the report "contained certain inaccurate information that has not fully" reflected its increased efforts, including the enforcement of a law on guest workers, protecting children online and cooperating internationally on safe migration.

"Vietnam has been following with keen attention the situation pertaining to domestic and cross-border human trafficking, so as to come up with suitable countermeasures," said Le Thi Thu Hang, a foreign ministry spokeswoman.

Ging shows a job posting in a Facebook page run by traffickers. The page has more than 16,000 followers. (Photo by Francesca Regalado)

While Thai authorities can often identify victims and track perpetrators through bank accounts, internet data and phone records, enforcement often falls to their poorly equipped Cambodian counterparts. Immigration authorities in Sihanoukville, where 15-year-old Namtip was detained, said her case was delayed because they could not verify her identity.

Victims who spoke with Nikkei Asia said they witnessed patrols on both sides of the Thai-Cambodian border accepting bribes from traffickers for safe passage. Syndicate bosses would brag to victims about how much they paid the police for each head, the victims said.

Corruption also helps explain the situation in Sihanoukville, which has a special economic zone, in which around 100 casinos and numerous property developments are financed and operated by Chinese businessmen. Victims could easily find where they were held on a map -- large compounds with high walls and barbed wire, containing dormitories and casinos. These are often in or near urban centers, as they require high-speed internet to conduct financial scams and traffic more people.

"In the past, trafficking was done person to person. But online, you can trick a hundred people at the same time," said Surachate.

Cambodia National Police spokesman Chhay Kim Khoeun told Nikkei in December that the force is committed to its crackdown on groups kidnapping workers.

A trafficking survivor reunites with family in Vietnam, where the U.S. says limits on independent unions and free speech made it hard to discuss workers’ rights and labor trafficking. (Photo courtesy of Blue Dragon Children's Foundation)

In Vietnam, the ads beckoning people to work overseas are as diverse as the destination countries, from Facebook posts and handwritten posters near the woods of Dalat touting Kuwait to printed banners for Japan on a narrow road outside Hanoi.

Some chancers end up being tricked into slave labor. Nam Thuy says it was a steamed bun laced with sedatives that did him in.

In May, facing an avalanche of medical bills, he decided on a last resort -- selling an organ. Thuy told Nikkei in Ho Chi Minh City that he jumped into a Hyundai vehicle with strangers thinking they'd broker the procedure. On the drive, the 30-year-old ate the bun, only to wake up hours later on the road to Cambodia, where he remained for months.

He and dozens of other Vietnamese were forced to adopt fake online identities to con people, he said. With a target of about $4,000, he used chats to get people to invest in fraudulent get-rich-quick schemes.

"If you didn't meet the target, they shocked you, beat you or let you starve," he said, tugging away his medical mask to reveal missing teeth.

More people became vulnerable to exploitation during the pandemic and have been trafficked to a greater variety of places, but "the root cause is still poverty," said Nguyen Tra My, an anti-trafficking officer at Blue Dragon Children's Foundation, which rescues Vietnamese trapped in China. "The trafficking landscape changed," she said.

Trafficking victims receive art therapy in Vietnam. By one count, the country conducted 36,000 inspections yet reported no sex trafficking victims, the U.S. said. (Photo courtesy of Blue Dragon Children's Foundation)

Thai authorities and nonprofits say trafficking cannot be eradicated as long as economic opportunities at home are lacking. The promise of 30,000-baht monthly salaries is enough to persuade people to ignore red flags and take the risk of illegally crossing the border.

Ging, a 26-year-old single mother who was trafficked to Poipet, made only 9,000 baht per month at a local company in Saraburi Province. "It sounded like the recruiter really wanted to help me make money," she told Nikkei six days after her return from Cambodia.

"I was making money as they promised, but I just couldn't have my freedom," she said. To buy back her liberty, Ging had to raise three months' salary and borrow 30,000 baht from her hometown.

Namtip, the 15-year-old, thought she was signing up for a summer job between school terms to help her grandmother with expenses.

Sua, who was desperate for work after losing his job at a bank during the height of the pandemic, was trafficked to a casino in Sihanoukville. "The amount of money they were offering should have been a red flag," he said. "It was too much."

Sua now works with the Pavena Foundation for Children and Women, a nonprofit group for trafficked and abused women and children. Part of his work is encouraging victims to provide testimony to the police as most fear being charged for illegal acts committed forcibly, or for crossing borders illegally.

"If any country is weak on trafficking, we need to have some kind of sanction," said Pavena Hongsakul, a former Thai politician who runs her eponymous foundation.

[Atonchia]

Interesting.

SG was tier 2

Then tier 1 in 2020...

So it was due to Covid that prevent movement.....? 

[Jamesc]

Thank goodness they switched from precious animals.

[Watwheels]

The migrants just want to get a better paying job elsewhere but no means of getting a passport and pay for transport. Many poor countries face the same issues. Even legal fw coming to Sg to find work, they have to borrow or take loans just to come here and work. Whether legal or illegal migrants they are being exploited. A thin line between human trafficking and things done legally. All of them have to fulfil a number of years working to cover the cost of bringing them overseas to work. Legal means is called contract, illegal means is called freedom. If they want to leave for home early they are breaking the contract and have to pay the penalty to the recruiter/trafficker. 

The different tiers are perhaps how the legal fw are treated. Their welfare is being looked after. What US called human rights.

[Beregond]

大哥不用讲二哥😂

https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/death-toll-rises-to-53-from-human-trafficking-tragedy-in-us-texas-report-122063000142_1.html

Death toll rises to 53 from human-trafficking tragedy in US Texas: Report

rip

[Jamesc]

People are killing themselves to get into USA.

Must be a great country.

[Beregond]

Dun want to say those SEA countries listed got good record. But USA hardly got any right to judge others, base on their record🤮

https://deliverfund.org/facts-about-human-trafficking-in-the-us/

It is estimated that between 15,000 to 50,000 women and children are forced into sexual slavery in the United States every year, and the total number varies wildly as it is very difficult to research. One study from the Department of Health and Human Services estimated the number between 240,000 and 325,000, while a report from the University of Pennsylvania put it at between 100,000 and 300,000.

[Vratenza]

48 minutes ago, Jamesc said:

People are killing themselves to get into USA.

Must be a great country.

They get killed in USA (gun crimes) if they have not manage to kill themselves before that....

[Playtime]

6 hours ago, steveluv said:

 

 

phillipines top performer? strange.... 

it may have to do with being an "importer" or "exporter", and also if the people involved were forced or willing.🤔

i suspect singapore case had much to do with vice... as in they are here happily to make GOOD money, but once caught, will claim they were forced to come...  hope for leniency.

 

[Victor68]

I believe the 'trafficking' beside sex trade also about organ harvesting. A very prominent case was mentioned here in Singapore many years ago. We should always treasure our situation and hope the region is more stable. 

[Atonchia]

2 hours ago, Playtime said:

phillipines top performer? strange.... 

it may have to do with being an "importer" or "exporter", and also if the people involved were forced or willing.🤔

i suspect singapore case had much to do with vice... as in they are here happily to make GOOD money, but once caught, will claim they were forced to come...  hope for leniency.

 

PH likely mainly exporter of the human trafficked. 

Myanmar and Cambodia mainly operating scam call centres. 

[D3badge]

3 hours ago, Jamesc said:

People are killing themselves to get into USA.

Must be a great country.

What do you think? All the CCP top officials send their children to study in USA instead of Their own Tsinghua oR Beijing university 

Edited August 17, 2022 by D3badge

[Jamesc]

10 minutes ago, D3badge said:

What do you think? All the CCP to officials send their children to study in USA instead of Their own Tsinghua oR Beijing university 

Sun Tzu art of war.

Learn the ways of your enemy

to use it to defeat them!

I am sure all their kids hate every second in the land of the enemy.

They buy super cars and wear branded clothes just to blend in and not to arouse suspicion. 

Edited August 17, 2022 by Jamesc

[Kopites]

5 hours ago, Playtime said:

phillipines top performer? strange.... 

it may have to do with being an "importer" or "exporter", and also if the people involved were forced or willing.🤔

i suspect singapore case had much to do with vice... as in they are here happily to make GOOD money, but once caught, will claim they were forced to come...  hope for leniency.

 

Those in geyland red light districts?

[Beregond]

Like drug , human traffickers or snake head also got 2 side. importer and exporter.

Both side are as evil.

Not all victims of human traffickers are volunteers or looking for a better life etc, many are kidnapped, trick or force. 

I think its an insult to those victims that are abuse or killed in the process to say they are willing to die to take part in  the process whether willing or not. 

The most evil of them all is the company or boss or whoever employ these victim for work, giving them min wages or only food enough to stay alive or force them into unwilling trade such as prostitution etc

[Picnic06-Biante15]

This Report was done by US Department. F*** the bloody report. 

As usual, always Asia countries flare worsted and the Western countries top....  

Look at US itself. They have far more worst number of cases daily in their borders with neighbouring countries like Mexico, Columbia, .... etc.  

European countries facing the same problem and they are not 'clean' either. .

 

[Playtime]

8 hours ago, Kopites said:

Those in geyland red light districts?

Those are on govt permits,  realllyyyyy same as the FWs building our roads and buildings or the FTs, officially come here for a job. Govt ever responded to make that clear. 

There is a huge underground of "private sector", popular ones even have social media, the really smart ones will retire after a few years to be shop owners or land ladies back home. That's unregulated. But entry been impacted by Corona lockdown. 

[Jman888]

as long as they are illegal workers (all kind of job), whether willing or unwilling, all are called human trafficking.