Thai Government is set to advance six anti-human trafficking measures among all agencies in “team Thailand” following the TIP upgrade.
July 24, 2022. Pol Gen Thammasak Witcharaya, Deputy Secretary-General to the Prime Minister for Political Affairs, credited Thailand’s status upgraded from Tier 2 Watch List to Tier 2 in the U.S. Trafficking in Person (TIP) Report 2022 to the “team Thailand” whose collaborative work has resulted in concrete progress in three key areas – 1) the effective prosecution and law enforcement, 2) the development of victim protection mechanisms with victim-centric and trauma-informed care approach, and 3) preventive work to fight against trafficking among vulnerable groups and migrant workers. This success reaffirms Thailand’s determination to continue its fight with the goal to eliminate human trafficking.
The key measures going forward in 2022 to maintain Tier 2 status and hopefully step up to Tier 1 in the future are the followings;
- Effective implementation of the action plan on National Referral Mechanism(NRM), cases management, victim protection, and forced labour B.E. 2565 by all agencies.
- Monitoring the NRM implementation and reflection period to strengthen victim identification, referral, and protection system.
- Utilizing a national victim identification center for the entire process which includes pre-screening preparation, screening and identification of the presumed trafficking victims.
- Establishing the Counter Trafficking in Persons Center of Excellence, in collaboration with the Australian government, to enhance technical cooperation and exchange expertise between countries in Asia. The MOU is scheduled to be signed during one of the APEC Meetings, hosted by Thailand.
- Expanding the Child Safe Friendly Tourism Project to cover the entire country as a proactive measure to protect children from trafficking.
- Partnering with USAID Thailand Counter Trafficking in Persons Project (USAID Thailand CTIP) and Winrock International to develop systems and guidelines for preventing and combatting child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking.
Pol Gen Thammasak added that human trafficking situation has changed and become more complex, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and online technology. Since 2019, online trafficking has significantly increased. Traffickers use internet to lure the victims by offering high incomes. Some of the victims were taken across the border to neighboring countries or Middle Eastern countries, and forced to work or into prostitution. Recently, the Thai authorities have rescued 855 Thais who fell victims of online scamming.
For this reason, DPM Prawit has ordered the Royal Thai Police and Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES) to prioritize the effort to fight online trafficking crimes and advised the public to approach online job advertisement with precaution. Should anyone has clues or finds the case of online scams, call 1191 hotline for human trafficking or 1441 for cybercrime.
Source: https://siamrath.co.th/n/367793
