Thailand

What is the human trafficking situation in Thailand?

Thailand is a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking. It is a destination-side hub of exploitation in the Greater Mekong Sub-region, for both sex and labour exploitation. Both internal and cross-border trafficking occur in and from Thailand, for sex and labour exploitation. Male and female migrants from neighbouring countries are trafficked into Thailand; Thais are trafficked to wealthier countries in Northeast Asia, the Middle East, and
Europe; and there is rural-urban risky migration and trafficking as well.

According to the record of the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security (MSDHS) in 2007, the Ministry provided 363 foreign trafficked victims with shelter and assistance. However, since victims are often unwilling to disclose their identities or file official complaints against traffickers for various reasons, the scale of the problem is likely to be greater than this.

Who is being trafficked in Thailand, and what are some of the vulnerability factors?

The majority of people trafficked to Thailand come from Myanmar, Lao PDR, Cambodia and Southern China and are subjected to forced or bonded labour and commercial sexual exploitation. The nature of labour migration to Thailand creates vulnerabilities for those migrant workers without documentation and often without Thai language skills, and who may not understand their rights under Thai law. Ethnic minorities within Thailand who are denied citizenship are at a high risk of being trafficked due to their
‘statelessness’.

Ethnic Thais are trafficked from the relatively poor areas of Chiang Rai, Phayao and Nong Khai to urban and tourist areas; or internationally. Thai women, urban and rural, are sent to work in sex and domestic industries in almost all regions of the world, particularly Malaysia, Japan, Bahrain, Australia, USA, Canada, South Africa and Germany15. This international trafficking is sometimes under the guise of a seemingly legal labor contract that is not honoured.

Motivations: Often-cited vulnerability factors are poverty, lack of education, awareness and employment, or dysfunctional families. But sometimes, it is a lack of relevant educational
opportunities, and not a lack of education – or, being relatively well-educated but with no appropriate job opportunities around – that are the key vulnerability factors.

Main sectors of work for trafficked persons in Thailand are sexual exploitation, begging, domestic work, factory work, agriculture and fishing industries

Who are the perpetrators of human trafficking in Thailand?

Profile: As the nature of trafficking varies, so too does the profile of traffickers, both Thai and non-Thai nationals, male and female. They range from those in organised networks able to produce or buy fake documents, avoid immigration requirements, and conduct trafficking operations spanning thousands of kilometres, to individuals seizing an opportunity to profit from cheating or coercing someone into a situation of exploitation. Perpetrators of human trafficking include anyone complicit in any stage of the deception, movement or exploitation of a person. Traffickers use sophisticated means of transporting Thai nationals on fraudulent travel documents and use various land, sea and air routes.

Trafficking networks in and from Thailand can be well-structured and work across the borders through the use of brokers. However, the majority of trafficking cases are facilitated by individual and local level networks of friends, family members and former victims, and often begin with voluntary migration.

SIREN human trafficking data sheet
STRATEGIC INFORMATION RESPONSE NETWORK
United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP)