US embassy cable - 05BANGKOK1321

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BANGKOK 001321 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR G/TIP, DRL/IL, PRM AND EAP/BCLTV 
LABOR FOR ILAB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB, KCRM, KWMN, PHUM, PREF, PREL, SMIG, TH, TIP - Trafficking in Persons 
SUBJECT: THAILAND TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS/LABOR DEVELOPMENTS 
 
REF: A. 04 BANGKOK 7573 
     B. BANGKOK 628 AND PREVIOUS 
 
1.  (U) Summary. Senior Royal Thai police (RTP), accompanied 
by a post NGO anti-trafficking partner, traveled to Malaysia 
to enhance cooperation in countering the increasing 
cross-border trafficking of women and children.  A 
low-ranking Thai policeman was convicted for trafficking a 
14-year old girl to Malaysia in 2002.  The RTP also arrested 
a major trafficker of Burmese men/boys onto commercial 
fishing trawlers.  Some forced seamen end up marooned on an 
isolated Indonesian island.  UN agencies based in Bangkok 
will advocate a special "amnesty" for illegal Burmese workers 
in tsunami-affected provinces.  Thai officials denied press 
reports that pregnant migrant workers from Burma, Laos and 
Cambodia face deportation.  A DRL/IL - funded project 
encourages a voluntary labor standard designed to help 
Thailand claim the reputation of a "clean labor" destination. 
 End Summary. 
 
2.  Thai Police Investigate Trafficking to Malaysia 
    --------------------------------------------- -- 
 
(SBU) The Royal Thai police (RTP), in cooperation with the US 
NGO International Justice Mission (IJM), completed a 
six-month investigation of the trafficking of Thai and 
Burmese women and girls to Johor Bahru, Malaysia, near the 
border with Singapore.  Several former victims provided 
information indicating that a single trafficker employed 
70-80 women/girls as sex workers, including some who are 
underage and/or coerced.  Thai, Burmese and Chinese women 
(from Yunnan province) are the primary victims. Ethnic Shan 
women from Burma are recruited from just across the Thai - 
Burma border, and enter Thailand at the northern Mae Sai 
crossing.  Thai women lured from northern Chiang Mai and 
Chiang Rai are promised jobs in Bangkok.  Both Burmese and 
Thais are brought by van or pick-up truck to the southern 
province of Hat Yai, an eight hundred mile journey. Some are 
then blindfolded during the onward trip to Johor Bahru.  Upon 
arrival at a string of karaoke bars and brothels owned by the 
Malaysian trafficker, they are informed that they each owe 
about USD 1,600. One young Burmese woman took nine months, at 
five customers a day, to pay off the debt.  On February 16, a 
team of senior RTP officials (accompanied by IJM) traveled to 
Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru to present their findings to the 
Malaysian police's anti-trafficking unit.  The International 
Organization for Migration (IOM) in Bangkok has agreed to 
assist in the repatriation of any Thai or Burmese victims 
discovered in Johor Bahru. 
 
3.  Conviction of Thai Policeman in Trafficking Case 
    --------------------------------------------- --- 
 
(U)  On February 8, a court in southern Songkhla province 
sentenced a low-ranking Thai policeman to 10 years in prison 
for his part in a trafficking ring which attempted to sell a 
14-year old into sexual exploitation.  The police lance 
corporal, and two others, "purchased" the young Thai girl and 
brought her to Malaysia in 2002. A Thai woman was also 
sentenced to 16 years for her part in the scheme. Charges 
were brought under the Penal Code and the 1997 
Anti-Trafficking Act. 
 
4.  Trafficking of Burmese Men/Boys onto Fishing Trawlers 
    --------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
(SBU) The Seafarer's Union of Burma (SUB) reported on 
February 16 that a group of ten Burmese males, including 
three minors, was confined on a fishing trawler in the port 
of Maha Chai, Samut Sakhon province, about 40 miles from 
Bangkok on the Gulf of Thailand.  The migrants entered 
Thailand illegally four days before. They were promised jobs 
in factories by a well-known Burmese smuggler/trafficker, but 
were delivered directly to the vessel, and told they were 
obligated to work on board for four and a half years in 
Indonesian fishing waters. The ethnic Karen men/boys, 
reportedly first time migrants to Thailand and easily 
intimidated, wished to depart but were controlled by four 
guards posted around the boat.  Once the trawler left port, 
the trafficker was to receive 130,000 baht (USD 3,421) from 
the Thai captain.  The impressed seamen would have to re-pay 
this sum from meager monthly wages.  On February 18, post 
provided the information to the RTP trafficking in persons 
unit, and on the same day police arrested the trafficker and 
owner of the vessel.  The dragooning of Burmese sailors 
appears to occur regularly in Chonburi, Songkhla and Samut 
Sakhon provinces on the Gulf of Thailand, and in Ranong on 
the Andaman Sea. Surplus or uncooperative seamen are often 
stranded on the isolated island of Tual in Indonesia's Banda 
Sea.  The SUB estimates the current Burmese population there 
at about 2,000.  In December, UN officials interviewed 
several returnees from Tual, who alleged Indonesian 
immigration police complicity in a system of re-trafficking 
abandoned Burmese seamen onto other Thai trawlers short of 
crews.  The men complained of bitter working conditions, 
including non-payment of wages and beatings.  Some told of 
isolated incidents of murders by the captains. 
 
5.  Child Sex Tourism Component in ILEA Training 
    -------------------------------------------- 
 
(U)  The International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA), a 
joint US - Thai regional training facility in Bangkok, 
presented a course between January 31 - February 11 on 
"Dealing with Sex Offenders".  Participants included 54 
mid-level police and immigration officials from Thailand, 
Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Australia, 
Brunei, the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong S.A.R., and 
Indonesia.  The training, which received good reviews by 
participants, included a component on child sex tourism 
conducted by a FBI specialist.  The UK government provided 
funding for the course. 
 
6.  UN Advocacy on Tsunami-affected Migrants 
    ---------------------------------------- 
 
(SBU)  A joint study by the Bangkok regional United Nations 
(UN) "country team" and the International Organization for 
Migration on the plight of Burmese migrants affected by the 
tsunami was released on February 7 (Ref B.)  The study 
 
SIPDIS 
concluded that some 7,000 Burmese workers (not including 
dependents) were affected, either through loss of life, 
health, livelihood or belongings.  Little information is 
available on the location of thousands of migrants who simply 
disappeared after the disaster, although hundreds are 
believed to be sheltered in make shift dwellings on hillsides 
and in rubber plantations in the six affected southern 
provinces.  Despite some NGO efforts, food, water and health 
care provision for this population remains poor.  The UN/IOM 
report argues for a moratorium on arrests/deportations of 
migrants in affected areas. Personal security of the migrants 
must be assured before other problems can be addressed: loss 
of employment, replacement of lost work permits, access to 
health care, and identifying the dead.  The study's 
recommendations, to be presented by the regional UN Resident 
Coordinator to the RTG Ministry of Foreign Affairs the week 
of February 20, include a special "amnesty" for illegal 
Burmese in tsunami-affected provinces.  An NGO network 
assisting the Burmese reports replacement of work permits is 
extremely slow, hampered by difficulties in providing 
information to the widely scattered groups, and migrant 
anxieties about arrest when contacting RTG authorities. As a 
result, only 93 replacement cards had been issued as of 
February 14.  Employers in the area are anxious to have the 
migrants remain to assist in rehabilitation of the fishing 
industry, and to fill construction sites in resort areas 
damaged by the December 26 tsunami. 
 
7.  Pregnant Migrant Workers to Face Deportation? 
    --------------------------------------------- 
 
(SBU) In July 2004, the RTG conducted an open registration 
for migrants from Burma, Laos and Cambodia already resident 
in Thailand.  Almost 1.3 million workers and dependents 
registered, allowing them a twelve-month period of legal 
residence in Thailand to conduct  health checks and find 
employers with MOL - verified needs.  By January, 692,000 
workers and dependents had received check-ups, with about 1.5 
percent diagnosed with contagious diseases that will force 
their deportation.  Over 9,000 female workers were found to 
be pregnant, and press reports in recent weeks suggested they 
would be deported as well.  On February 7, the MOL Deputy 
Permanent Secretary responded to Laboff concerns by asserting 
that "No formal decision had been made - it is only a 
suggestion," to forcibly return the pregnant women. The 
suggestion appears to come from the RTG National Security 
Council (NSC), the lead agency on a national-level Alien 
Labor Management Committee.  (The NSC has argued in the past 
that the presence of many stateless children poses a 
long-term security threat to Thailand.)  The National Human 
Rights Commission, established under the reformist 1997 
Constitution, has also objected to the deportation of 
pregnant migrants as a violation of a constitutional 
provision that asserts "the human dignity, rights and liberty 
of a person are protected."  A plan to have Burmese officials 
provide identity documents to the 906,000 registered Burmese 
in Thailand is months behind schedule, with little likelihood 
of significant progress before the July 2005 expiration of 
the program.  At that time, migrants who have not been 
matched with an employer and provided with ID cards by their 
home government are slated for deportation. 
 
 
8.  US Anti-Sweatshop Project 
    --------------------------- 
 
(U) Laboff opened a State/DRL - funded seminar, "Preventing 
Abuses in Sweatshops" (PASS), in southern Surat Thani 
province on February 1st.  Training on the MOL-promoted 
voluntary labor code, Thailand Labor Standard 8001, was 
provided to mid-level labor officials from fourteen southern 
provinces. TLS 8001 (closely based on its namesake, the 
international SAI 8000 voluntary code) is a unique effort by 
the RTG to establish Thailand as a "clean labor" destination 
for foreign buyers and investors.  Since 2003, some 320 
factories in Thailand have been certified under TLS 8001. 
Implemented by the Solidarity Center, the PASS project has 
trained 382 workers, managers and MOL officials on TLS 8001 
standards and monitoring throughout the country since 
November 2004.  Other PASS activities include training 
legally mandated worker safety committees in various aspects 
of occupational safety and health (OSH) in larger automobile, 
chemical and electrical appliance industries.  Those 
committees will then train the workers.  Next step: expanding 
OSH training to smaller enterprises, those with less than 50 
workers, where most sweatshop conditions are found.  In 
April, the PASS project will open a legal aid office in the 
Thai-Burma border town of Mae Sot, where tens of thousands of 
migrants work in exploitative conditions in textile, garment 
and jewelry factories.  The office will provide assistance to 
registered migrants who wish to make complaints (such as 
unpaid minimum wages) under the 1998 Labor Protection Act. 
 
 
 
 
ARVIZU