Mass 'migrant prison camp' grave found in Thailand

[Carlosa]

Victims of trafficking recall their nightmare
PRATCH RUJIVANAROM
THE NATION
RANONG May 29, 2015
Victims of trafficking recall their nightmare - The Nation

Victims of trafficking recall their nightmare

THREE Bangladeshi victims of human trafficking have revealed the horror stories derived from being on a crowed boat on the Andaman Sea en route to a smuggler's camp in Songkhla.

The men have been held at Ranong Immigration Police's detention centre for 18 months awaiting deportation.

On Tuesday, The Nation was granted special permission to visit the detention centre and speak to them about transnational human trafficking.

Nur Alam, 19, said initially he and the two other men were not allowed to leave the facility to exercise and get some fresh air in its small courtyard and there was nothing to do.

"The living conditions have improved in the past few months as we are allowed to go out of the building and have some exercise," Alam said.

The three detainees seemed to be healthy and in a good state of mind.

Nur-e-Alam, 25, said he was offered "a vocation trip" to Malaysia by a trafficking broker at Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh but ended up on a smuggling boat heading to Thailand.

"First, I was taken to a small boat and then transferred to a bigger boat on the open sea," Nur-e-Alam said.

This is similar story to the one told by Alam, who was tricked into thinking he was going to Malaysia for a free tourism trip.

However, he also ended up on a crowed boat. The boat was at sea for nine days when it reached a mountainous shore, supposedly along the Andaman coast in Thailand.

The passengers were kept two nights on a nearby mountain before being transported by car to a camp near the Malaysian border, which housed around 80 people.

The other victim, Shaha Buddin, 23, who boarded the same boat as Nur Alam, described the conditions on the boat as very poor, as there were more than 400 people and the food supply was limited.

"They [the traffickers] only gave us two meals of plain rice and dried chilli [a day]. They also gave us only 20 millilitres of water three times per day. If anyone ask for more food or water, they were beaten up," Buddin said.

"On the later days of the journey on the sea, there was a food shortage and we only received one meal per day," he added.

He said that the traffickers threw sick people overboard and raped women repeatedly every night.

Unlike his companions, his intention was to find a better life in Malaysia. He said that he was promised job opportunities in Malaysia by his broker, who had offered a special discount for the sea journey.

After reaching the camp near the Malaysian border, all three men stated that they were forced to call back home to inform their families that they had to pay a BDT200,000 ransom (Bt87,000) or they would be killed.

Nur-e-Alam and Nur Alam's families paid the ransom in cash to the broker in Cox's Bazar and the money was transferred to a bank account in Thailand.

They were to be transported across the border into Malaysia along with the other people whose families paid the ransom but the camp was raised by Thai police before that happened.

Alam said that they were held in custody at Hat Yai for 21 days before being transferred to the detention centre in January 2014.

Alam and Buddin have been verified as Bangladeshi nationals by the Bangladeshi embassy in Bangkok but the verification process is ongoing for Nur-e-Alam.

Recently, more Bangladeshis have become victims of human trafficking, with 75 Bangladeshis arrested in Ranong between October 2014 and May. There are 134 Bangladeshis being detained in Immigration Police detention centres nationwide.

Ranong Immigration Police deputy commander Somchai Jitsangob Ranong said 10 Rohingya were also in the detention centre in the province.

 

[Carlosa]

8 fishing 'slaves' pulled from Thai boat in PNG

• 31 Jul 2015 AP

8 fishing 'slaves' pulled from Thai boat in PNG | Bangkok Post: news

In this April 20 file photo, former fishing slaves who were rescued from Indonesia’s remote island village of Benjina gather at a temporary government-run shelter on the island of Tual, Indonesia. Authorities in Papua New Guinea have rescued eight fishermen held on board a Thai-owned refrigerated cargo ship, and dozens of other boats are still being sought. (AP photo)

Authorities in Papua New Guinea have rescued eight fishermen held on board a Thai-owned refrigerated cargo ship, and dozens of other boats are still being sought in response to an Associated Press report that included satellite photos and locations of slave vessels at sea.

Two Myanmar and six Cambodian men were removed from the Blissful Reefer, a massive, 1,000-square-metre transport ship now impounded in Daru, Papua New Guinea, about 200 kilometres north of Australia.

Officials said the fishermen appeared to be part of a larger group of forced labourers being transported from Thailand to be distributed onto various fishing boats, said George Gigauri, head of the International Organization for Migration in Port Moresby, which has assisted with the operation. He added that nearly 20 other crewmembers from the Blissful Reefer have not yet been questioned, and that if victims of trafficking are found, "there are lives at risk."

The men are part of a seemingly inexhaustible supply of poor migrants from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos who are forced to fish for the Thai seafood industry. When workers run away, become sick or even die, they are easily replaced by new recruits who are tricked or coerced by false promises of jobs in Thailand.

The story of Aung San Win, 19, who was among the rescued men, started the same way as with hundreds of other enslaved fishermen interviewed in person or in writing by AP during a year-long investigation into slavery at sea. He said a broker came to his home in Myanmar and convinced him and several other young men to go to Thailand where they could find good work in factories. But when they arrived, their passports and identification cards were taken. They were then pushed onto boats and told they would have to fish for three years and owed nearly US$600 for their documents, he said.

"They told us that we have to get off in this place and work here," said Aung San Win, who added that it had taken about 20 days to reach Papua New Guinea, after stops in Singapore and Australia. "I don't want to work here. I don't even know what this place is."

Enslaved fishermen are routinely hauled from Thailand to work on smaller Thai trawlers in foreign waters where they are given little or no pay. Hundreds of former slaves told AP they were beaten or witnessed other crew members being attacked. They were routinely denied medicine, forced to work 22-hour shifts with no days off and given inadequate food and impure water.

The ship seized in Papua New Guinea, the Blissful Reefer, appears to be connected to a trafficking ring exposed by the AP that was sending seafood caught by slaves around the Indonesian island of Benjina to the United States. The Blissful Reefer is listed by Indonesian authorities as one of nine massive seafood transporters chartered by the fishing company in Benjina. And documents from the men on board showed they were brought to work on two trawlers, Chainavee 12 and Chainavee 24, from the same family of vessels AP found in Benjina.

The AP investigation revealed fishermen being held in a cage, buried under fake names in a company graveyard and trapped for years with no way to return home. Journalists followed their slave-caught fish back to Thailand and linked it to the supply chains of major US food sellers, such as Wal-Mart, Sysco and Kroger, and American pet food companies, including Fancy Feast, Meow Mix and Iams. The businesses have all said they strongly condemn labor abuse and vowed to take steps to prevent it.

The report prompted rescues and repatriation of more than 800 men, and seven people have been charged with human trafficking.

In the past four months, AP has been tracking down another 34 boats, with as many as 20 men aboard each, that fled the slave island well before authorities and investigators arrived. First-hand accounts, satellite photos and public records located at least some of the vessels in a narrow, dangerous strait in western Papua New Guinea.

Authorities there then searched the fishing grounds, called the dogleg, with aircraft and stopped the Blissful Reefer. The prime minister's office in Papua New Guinea and the National Fisheries Authority did not respond to requests for comment.

Indonesia Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti, whose investigators had been chasing the boats from Benjina, said she has asked Papua New Guinea to send back any illegal trawlers that fled her country for prosecution.

International Organization for Migration spokesman Leonard Doyle told a United Nations briefing in Geneva that AP had alerted authorities last week about suspect boats and searchers had found "a group of mariners from one of these vessels to be victims of trafficking." But time is ticking to find the others. All foreign boats must leave the Papua New Guinea strait by Friday, when a fishing moratorium will be put in place to clamp down on poaching, according to the National Fisheries Authority.

A patrol boat is expected to be sent to search waters in the strait along with a surveillance plane, Mr Gigauri said. The eight men aboard the Blissful Reefer will be returned home.

 

[opruh]

@Carlosa

There are over 100,000 Shan refugees on the territory of Chiang Mai Province in the north of Thailand, in the south of Thailand specifically in Songkhla , which is bordering the Andaman Sea, and close to Bangladesh as well as Burma.

The issue of bribing security forces is also a barrier to stopping human trafficking....there in Thailand....

Japan is a rich country, you should take 1 million refugees.

 

[somsak]

Every country which condem Thailand should take these people into there land. Please do not blame only. Show us by being a good example is the best way to teach us.

 

[Carlosa]

Blame the coup for Thailand's Tier 3 rating woes

SUPALAK GANJANAKHUNDEE
THE NATION August 5, 2015

Blame the coup for Thailand's Tier 3 rating woes - The Nation

If Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha wanted to blame something or somebody for Thailand languishing in Tier 3 in the 2015 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, he should blame himself and his May 22 coup.

The coup might be a political instrument for him and other elite to seize power to run the country - but it is not the perfect solution to solve all of Thailand's problems. On the contrary, it is a major part of the problem and an obstacle to many solutions.

Human trafficking has existed in Thailand for a long time, long before the United States Department of State created the TIP report 15 years ago. As long as people keep moving, it is not easy to eliminate human trafficking. Unless all states allow the free movement of people, human trafficking will exist. The stricter a border is controlled, the more there are traffickers to facilitate the border crossing.

Migration from immediate neighbouring countries and far away is the result of people wanting to seek better lives or refuge in Thailand. By law, they perhaps are not qualified to obtain any permission to arrive, live or work in Thailand. They are mostly undocumented. In many cases, they are stateless. The only way for them to enter Thailand is to buy trafficking services.

How can traffickers bring their customers into the Kingdom without the cooperation of border control and security officials? Of course, the boundary line is long and the ocean is huge - but officials are also many. Traffickers normally use the same methods and routes as ordinary travellers to arrive in the Kingdom. In many cases, as reported by media and social workers familiar with the issue, traffickers pay officials to pave the way. Military officers, even high ranking four-star generals, are involved, if not heading the trafficking syndicates.

The military coup d'etat, which Prayut staged in May last year to topple an elected civilian government, not only destroyed the rule of law but also provided a safe haven for corrupt security officials. The junta empowered soldiers to control everything beyond examination.

Two Phuket-based journalists were sued for defamation by the Navy for reporting the involvement of naval officials in human trafficking in 2013. The Navy and the junta never listened to many appeals to drop the case against the two journalists. Prayut himself demanded a television journalist to report herself to security officials after a scoop on forced labour in Thai fishery trawlers.

Prayut gets furious every time he is asked by reporters about the involvement of military officers in human trafficking. The TIP report took note of these issues and cited that such action undermined efforts to combat human trafficking.

The report called again this year for the military government to "cease prosecuting criminal defamation cases against researchers or journalists who report on human trafficking".

The decision to prosecute a senior military officer in connection with trafficking in the Rohingya case was too late as the US had already closed the consideration of information after March 2015. The reasons for the slow move remain unknown - but they left out for next year's report what Prayut's administration had done and therefore Thailand remains in Tier 3 for another year.

Analysts and some government officials believe that the relations between Thailand and US, which became sour after the May 22 coup, influenced the TIP report.

The Foreign Ministry might be able to maintain communication with the US State Department but the signal is very poor and Washington is not in the mood, at least for now, to clear it.