Burmese migrants on the Thai/Burma border (Matt Van Saun/Demotix)While the world has set its eyes upon the situation of refugees and migrants arriving into European territories, the Asian crisis has gone largely unnoticed. This region too has been in a state of tremendous flux when it comes to migration. A snapshot of the giant human trafficking industry in Thailand reveals that not only has it long been a host country, but that it is also used as a point of transit by human traffickers who push millions into slave jobs each year. Research conducted in 2010 revealed that 23 percent of Cambodians deported from Thailand had previously been trafficked. Similarly, around 53 percent of workers in the sea food industry in Samut Sakhon experience forced labor.
The US Government has listed Thailand as one of the worst places in the world when it comes to human trafficking. Though the Thai government has taken anti-trafficking measures, such as formulating the Anti-Trafficking law in 2008, as well as forming special task forces to crack down on the traffickers, the implementation has been weak and the problem by and large has continued unabated. Thailand is one of the emerging powers in a region where neighboring countries like Burma, Cambodia and Laos are either scarred by years of political instability or have been railing under extreme poverty conditions; naturally Thailand attracts migrants as it offers more favorable conditions by comparison.
Migrants are being increasingly hurled by traffickers into ‘camp boats’ held off-shore in the Indian Ocean. Abdul Kalam, who was working as an adviser for the police in Thailand, spoke about the refugee situation in a recent interview to the Guardian. People are being taken off shore in tanker ships and held for months at a time, he explained. These tanker ships are effectively refugee camps. One such ship, he commented, “has been out for two months and is moving all the time. The ship has got 2,000 people on it. The traffickers are relocating their camps because so much money is involved”.Among those on board are Burmese. People from Burma continue fleeing the instability in their country, where they have been subjected to human rights abuses for years.
