The Thailand representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) praised the Kingdom’s migrant worker registration program as a significant attempt to prevent human trafficking. Meanwhile, Thai police uncovered over 100 South Asian trafficking victims in southern Thailand and rescued a group of underage girls from Laos from a northern brothel last week. Mireille Girard, the UNHCR representative to the Kingdom “applauded Thailand for regulating illegal immigrant workers from neighboring countries, saying it showed a real attempt to prevent human trafficking,” according to Thailand’s national news agency. She made the comment during a courtesy call on Thanasak Patimapragorn, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Girard reiterated a statement by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon that the U.N. considers Thailand a significant partner in the enhancement of sustainable development, which is a key mission of the world body. Thailand was criticized by the State Department of the United States earlier this year in its annual Trafficking in Persons report, with the U.S. alleging the Kingdom was not doing enough to prevent human trafficking. Since assuming power in late May, the government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has made fighting human trafficking a priority, thereby ensuring uninterrupted commitment of the country to fight the scourge. One of the measures to further strengthen efforts to battle traffickers and prevent vulnerable groups from falling victims has been to register all foreign migrant workers who entered the country illegally. While the majority of foreign workers coming from neighboring countries, such as Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, have been registered to work legally in Thailand, many pay people smugglers to help them cross the border and find work. Some end up in the hands of human traffickers who subject them to debt bondage and other labor and human rights abuses. Since June, over 1 million migrant workers have registered under the registration program. They have been given a two-month permission to work in the Kingdom while engaging in a process that will grant them permission to stay and work for longer periods of time. At the same time, the Kingdom has been engaging the governments of its neighboring countries in discussion on cooperation to allow migrant workers to come to work through formal channels. As part of broader moves against trafficking, Thai police raided a karaoke bar in the border province of Nong Khai last week and rescued eight female teenagers from neighboring Laos who had been forced into prostitution. Two were just 15 years old, and two others were 16. Meanwhile, Thai police uncovered a total of 130 migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar hiding on an island off the country’s southwestern coast during a one-week period that ended last week. Fifteen were members of the Rohingya, a minority that faces harsh discrimination in both Myanmar and Bangladesh. The migrants were shifted to a shelter in Ranong province while authorities investigate their cases. thaiembdc.org/dcdp/?q=node/743
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 19:20:29 +0000
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