Human trafficking | Thailand scrambles to boost image

In this May 5 photo, border patrol police officers dismantle an abandoned migrant camp on Khao Kaew mountain near the Thai-Malaysian border

Thailand is eager to show its newfound toughness on human trafficking, taking reporters on patrols and tours of former camps, cooperating with neighboring countries and the U.S., and arresting dozens of officials — including a high-ranking officer in the military that now controls the country. The junta even had a “National Anti-Human Trafficking Day.”
The Southeast Asian country is trying to dissuade Western governments from leveling economic sanctions, but it has a daunting enemy: history.
“Thailand remains major center for human trafficking.” Those words were emblazoned on a huge headline in a Thai daily newspaper printed nearly three years ago. The country’s answer was largely to ignore the problem, until recent events made that impossible.
The discovery of 36 bodies at abandoned traffickers’ camps near Thailand’s southern border with Malaysia has intensified international pressure on Thailand to crack down on smugglers. So has a subsequent crisis involving thousands of migrants who were stranded at sea by their traffickers — and whose boats were pushed back by Thai officials. Those migrants, mainly Bangladeshis and ethnic Rohingya migrants from Myanmar, are just part of a human-trafficking problem that also includes Thai fishing boats that have used slave labor.
Last June, Thailand and Malaysia were put on a blacklist in a U.S. State Department assessment on human trafficking, a downgrade that can jeopardize its lucrative seafood and shrimp industries. The European Union also threatened Thailand with a ban on seafood import by the end of the year unless it drastically changes its policies on illegal and unregulated fishing.
A new State Department assessment is due this month, and Thailand is pushing for an upgrade with efforts that included its first-ever Anti-Human Trafficking Day on Friday. The opening ceremony at the prime minister’s Government House was followed by discussion about the problem and an awards ceremony for a journalist, police and officials who have helped expose human trafficking problems.
“Today, we have to admit that this has been a problem in Thailand for a long time,” Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said as he opened the event with an hour-long speech.
Yet even Friday’s event raised questions about Thailand’s seriousness. The journalist who was honored reported on trafficking from the country’s inland north, not the south and the sea, where the crisis has been most immediate. Weeks earlier, when a Bangkok television reporter drew broad attention to the issue by getting on a migrant boat to shoot video, Prayuth obliquely referred to her as a troublemaker.
Human-rights activists and others have long accused Thai authorities of collusion in the trafficking industry — claims that police, military and government officials have long denied. But as the migrant camps, graves and boats drew global attention, pressure grew on the government to respond.
In a widening human-trafficking investigation, more than 50 people have been arrested in a month, including local politicians, government officials, police, and, in the past week, a senior-ranking army officer. About 50 police officers in the southern provinces were also removed from their posts and investigated for possible involvement in trafficking syndicates.
The junta-appointed legislature passed a new anti-human trafficking law that mandates harsher penalties, and human trafficking-related court cases will get a shortcut in the judicial system to prosecute suspects more quickly.
“Thailand needs to show that they are consistent with law enforcement,” said Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher of Human Rights Watch. “The arrest (of an army officer) showed that no one will be left untouched this time, but at the same time, it also made us question why have they allowed this to happen for years.
“Thailand has been accused of having the culture of impunity of state officials in the past, but this crisis offers a first chance to break that culture,” he said. Thanyarat Doksone, Bangkok, AP