JUNE 5 (Reuters) — Thailand’s prime minister said on Friday (June 5) his government was seriously committed to tackling the illicit trade in people and vowed no letup in its crackdown, announcing June 5 as a “national anti-human trafficking day”.
The United States last year downgraded Thailand to its “Tier 3” list of worst offenders – alongside the likes of Iran and North Korea – in its annual ranking of countries by their counter-trafficking efforts.
The report sparked a crackdown by Thai authorities which led to a surge in the number of boats and refugees destined for Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia being abandoned at sea by trafficking gangs.
The United Nations estimates several thousand are stranded on boats.
Thai authorities have been accused by rights groups of indifference, and sometimes complicity, over the trade in humans, allowing camps run by cross-border people traffickers to thrive
“I would like to ask everybody here to be confident that with the unity within the country, the (mutual) understanding in terms of the country’s benefits and the problems that we helped to solve, they have been developed concurrently with the current government as well as the future government in fighting against the human trafficking network, to stop and punish them,” the Thai leader, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, said during an opening ceremony to mark Thailand’s first “anti-trafficking day”.
Prayuth said he was under no illusion about the challenges ahead and the scale of human trafficking, which he said stemmed from poverty and inequality.
“We will need to help the country of origin as well. Please don’t forget to consider discussing with them on how we can help. We will not throw these problems back and forth to other people. We will be gentleman because we are one of the important countries in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations),” he said.
Those trafficked are mainly from impoverished Bangladesh, or members of Myanmar’s mostly stateless Rohingya minority. Myanmar vehemently denies it is the source of the problem.
Prayuth vowed to continue the crackdown and severely punish those profiting from the trade.
“The punishment for officials (who are involved in human trafficking), firstly, they will face disciplinary penalty. Secondly, they will be interrogated and then go through the legal procedures,” he added.
Thai police say they have issued 84 arrest warrants for human trafficking, apprehending 51 suspects so far, the most notable being a high-ranking Thai army general.
