In its annual 2014 report, the US State Department has declared the Thai government’s efforts to curb human trafficking highly ineffective, with trafficked undocumented migrants totaling as many as half a million people and held in virtual slavery.
Of 188 countries, according to the report, Thailand tied for last place among 20 that are directly or indirectly involved in violating human rights by not effectively fighting human trafficking. Others among the 20 are North Korea, Iran, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Notwithstanding the UNO’s resolutions condemning human trafficking and consequent violations of human rights, human trafficking continues to be on the rise in Thailand, as in many other states. It is an irony as well as a sad example of the way modern capitalist development is rooted in Thailand that the level of human trafficking is rising proportionately to rising economic development.
That is because economic growth is accompanied by increasing demand for unskilled and cheap labor. This demand is largely satisfied by illegal migrants from Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. Most of these laborers are employed in labor-intensive, dirty and low-prestige sectors of the economy. International experience suggests that in a situation when opportunities for employment are accompanied by complicated visa procedures, the criminalization of migration is quick to follow. This has become especially evident in Thailand’s case.
The Guardian, in its own probe, found that workers from different countries are paying brokers to help them find work in Thailand in factories or on building sites, but instead they are sold as virtual slaves to boat captains, sometimes for as little as US$420. Full story...
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Of 188 countries, according to the report, Thailand tied for last place among 20 that are directly or indirectly involved in violating human rights by not effectively fighting human trafficking. Others among the 20 are North Korea, Iran, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Notwithstanding the UNO’s resolutions condemning human trafficking and consequent violations of human rights, human trafficking continues to be on the rise in Thailand, as in many other states. It is an irony as well as a sad example of the way modern capitalist development is rooted in Thailand that the level of human trafficking is rising proportionately to rising economic development.
That is because economic growth is accompanied by increasing demand for unskilled and cheap labor. This demand is largely satisfied by illegal migrants from Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. Most of these laborers are employed in labor-intensive, dirty and low-prestige sectors of the economy. International experience suggests that in a situation when opportunities for employment are accompanied by complicated visa procedures, the criminalization of migration is quick to follow. This has become especially evident in Thailand’s case.
The Guardian, in its own probe, found that workers from different countries are paying brokers to help them find work in Thailand in factories or on building sites, but instead they are sold as virtual slaves to boat captains, sometimes for as little as US$420. Full story...
Related posts:
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- Journalists in Thailand face prison for quoting report about Rohingya abuse...
- Thailand secretly supplies Rohingya refugees to trafficking rings...
- Thailand and Burma, the dark side...
- Thailand's shocking treatment of immigrants, refugees...
- Nearly 30 million people in slavery...
- The death mill: Qatar and the World Cup...
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