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Thai Government Partners with UN to Combat Human Trafficking1

The Ministry of Social Development and Human Security has joined hands with Thammasat University and the United Nations to open a center dedicated to providing online information relating to human trafficking.

The center which is being supported by the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (UNIAP), will act as a focal point for persons and agencies working to combat human trafficking to exchange information. It will also serve to inform a wider sector of the public on issues relating to human trafficking. Visitors to the centre will be able to search for information online at http://www.library.tu.ac.th

Mrs. Napha Setthakorn, director of the ministry's Office for the Prevention of Trafficking in Women and Children, stated during the panel discussion after the opening on 24 March that since 2002 the majority of human trafficking victims in Thailand had come from Burma, Laos, Cambodia, China and Vietnam. Children from Laos were generally forced to work as domestic servants and in sweatshops, while children from Burma were also made to work in sweatshops and children from Cambodia normally ended up as beggars.

Mrs. Napha also spoke of a growing tendency for males to become human trafficking victims, while noting that Thais were frequently forced by human traffickers to work abroad. She advised any young people wishing to work abroad to phone the ministry's helpline before embarking on their travels.