| By ALEX ELLGEE | Friday, February 18, 2011 |
 Burmese children are often exploited in Thailand as cheap or free sources of labor by unscrupulous traffickers and businessmen. (Photo: Reuters) |
MAE SOT—Aung Khine was 11 years old when his father passed away. His father had worked as a carpenter to provide for his mother and two little sisters. Now without their father’s support, the family was facing serious problems.
At the same time, a friend of the family returned from Mae Sot where he had been working in a factory. The friend had saved up enough money to repair his home’s broken roof and provide good food.
“My mother didn’t want me to go, but we had no choice,” Aung Khine told The Irrawaddy.
“We live in a really poor area in Mon State and at the time we were struggling to eat more than once a day,” he said.
In the local town, he says it wasn’t hard to find a broker—or carrier as the Burmese call them—who would take him to Thailand. Aung Khine says a middle-aged Mon man at the local market promised a safe trip to Thailand and a guaranteed job at the end.
In return for his services Aung Khine had to pay the man 95,000 [US $95], a fee they could not afford. It was fine though, the broker said, he could pay him back slowly when he started working.
“At the time I was so excited. I always heard Thailand was a great country and expected I would find a great life and a job to help my poor family,” said Aung Khine.
He was placed on a bus with a group of Burmese children and they made their way with the broker to the Thai-Burmese border. They waited till night and then sneaked across the river on small boats.
Aung Khine said he remembers two Thai men entering the dark room where the children were huddled and handing over money to the Burmese broker. “The last thing the carrier said to me was to make sure I do what the men tell me.”
Almost immediately Aung Khine was taken to a factory outside of Mae Sot where he was kept in prison-like conditions.
“We were never allowed out in six months. We could only go into the small garden behind the living quarters,” Aung Khine said. “The owner beat us and never paid us for our work. He said he paid for our travel costs so we had to work to pay him back.”
When the Thai owner had finished his order, the children were sold on to another factory where they lived in similar conditions. Two months in, the kids couldn’t take it any more, and they made a plan to escape in the night. They succeeded.
Aung Khine’s case is very similar to that of the thousands of other Burmese children and adults who head to Mae Sot with dreams of better lives, only to be trafficked into exploitative and slave-like conditions.
According to Moe Swe, the Mae Sot-based director of Yaung Ci Oo Workers Association, the lack of protection for Burmese migrant workers has resulted in an ever-growing group of vulnerable people.
“There is a lack of protection for migrant workers and the system for them to register is still weak,” he told The Irrawaddy. “As a result, many migrants come to Mae Sot illegally, which makes it easy for traffickers and employers to exploit them.”
As an increasing number of Burmese flee economic woes and instability in eastern Burma, a growing number of traffickers are arriving in Mae Sot to prey on the vulnerable.
“We are definitely seeing an increase in the amount of trafficking and traffickers in and around Mae Sot,” says Khun Mink, the coordinator of the Mae Sot branch of the Thai NGO, Foundation for Women (FFW).
The NGO has been running for more than 30 years and has dealt with hundreds if not thousands of human trafficking cases. Seeing a growing problem in Mae Sot, the NGO recently decided to set up an office on the border to deal with the problem.
“Before, we were based in Bangkok and worked hard to reduce trafficking in the region, but we felt we had to come up here urgently – Mae Sot is the first step for most trafficking in the region,” she said.
Since FFW opened its Centre for Trafficked Women and Children in Mae Sot the group has seen a steady flow of victims come in and out of their shelter—victims who had not only been trafficked around Mae Sot, but ended up further afield.
According to Sophia Naing who runs the FFW shelter, a lack of education in the communities is the biggest problem.
“In order to prevent trafficking from increasing any further, there needs to be a dramatic rise in anti-trafficking education provided to the communities by NGOs and governments,” she told The Irrawaddy while attending to several infants.
“So many poor families are happy to send their children off to work in Thailand because they don’t know the risks and dangers of trafficking—if we can increase awareness then families will be more careful about brokers who prey on the poor inside Burma,” she said.
At the same time, a friend of the family returned from Mae Sot where he had been working in a factory. The friend had saved up enough money to repair his home’s broken roof and provide good food.
“My mother didn’t want me to go, but we had no choice,” Aung Khine told The Irrawaddy.
“We live in a really poor area in Mon State and at the time we were struggling to eat more than once a day,” he said.
In the local town, he says it wasn’t hard to find a broker—or carrier as the Burmese call them—who would take him to Thailand. Aung Khine says a middle-aged Mon man at the local market promised a safe trip to Thailand and a guaranteed job at the end.
In return for his services Aung Khine had to pay the man 95,000 [US $95], a fee they could not afford. It was fine though, the broker said, he could pay him back slowly when he started working.
“At the time I was so excited. I always heard Thailand was a great country and expected I would find a great life and a job to help my poor family,” said Aung Khine.
He was placed on a bus with a group of Burmese children and they made their way with the broker to the Thai-Burmese border. They waited till night and then sneaked across the river on small boats.
Aung Khine said he remembers two Thai men entering the dark room where the children were huddled and handing over money to the Burmese broker. “The last thing the carrier said to me was to make sure I do what the men tell me.”
Almost immediately Aung Khine was taken to a factory outside of Mae Sot where he was kept in prison-like conditions.
“We were never allowed out in six months. We could only go into the small garden behind the living quarters,” Aung Khine said. “The owner beat us and never paid us for our work. He said he paid for our travel costs so we had to work to pay him back.”
When the Thai owner had finished his order, the children were sold on to another factory where they lived in similar conditions. Two months in, the kids couldn’t take it any more, and they made a plan to escape in the night. They succeeded.
Aung Khine’s case is very similar to that of the thousands of other Burmese children and adults who head to Mae Sot with dreams of better lives, only to be trafficked into exploitative and slave-like conditions.
According to Moe Swe, the Mae Sot-based director of Yaung Ci Oo Workers Association, the lack of protection for Burmese migrant workers has resulted in an ever-growing group of vulnerable people.
“There is a lack of protection for migrant workers and the system for them to register is still weak,” he told The Irrawaddy. “As a result, many migrants come to Mae Sot illegally, which makes it easy for traffickers and employers to exploit them.”
As an increasing number of Burmese flee economic woes and instability in eastern Burma, a growing number of traffickers are arriving in Mae Sot to prey on the vulnerable.
“We are definitely seeing an increase in the amount of trafficking and traffickers in and around Mae Sot,” says Khun Mink, the coordinator of the Mae Sot branch of the Thai NGO, Foundation for Women (FFW).
The NGO has been running for more than 30 years and has dealt with hundreds if not thousands of human trafficking cases. Seeing a growing problem in Mae Sot, the NGO recently decided to set up an office on the border to deal with the problem.
“Before, we were based in Bangkok and worked hard to reduce trafficking in the region, but we felt we had to come up here urgently – Mae Sot is the first step for most trafficking in the region,” she said.
Since FFW opened its Centre for Trafficked Women and Children in Mae Sot the group has seen a steady flow of victims come in and out of their shelter—victims who had not only been trafficked around Mae Sot, but ended up further afield.
According to Sophia Naing who runs the FFW shelter, a lack of education in the communities is the biggest problem.
“In order to prevent trafficking from increasing any further, there needs to be a dramatic rise in anti-trafficking education provided to the communities by NGOs and governments,” she told The Irrawaddy while attending to several infants.
“So many poor families are happy to send their children off to work in Thailand because they don’t know the risks and dangers of trafficking—if we can increase awareness then families will be more careful about brokers who prey on the poor inside Burma,” she said.
“This can also be done by giving victims the courage to go back to their community and share their experience.”
The family of Ma Thiri, a young girl who recently arrived at the FFW shelter, apparently did not know the risks of sending their daughter to Thailand. When a broker came to their home offering to take Ma Thiri for free, they jumped at the opportunity.
“My mother is just an alcohol brewer,” Ma Thiri said. “We are very poor. So I was excited to go to Thailand. I wanted to be like the rich and beautiful Thai girls on TV.”
At first she worked as a housemaid, but her employer’s husband did not like her, so she was told to find another job. At her next job, her employer did not pay her for three months then told her that she had to leave and work in a massage parlor.
“I didn’t know what a massage parlor was—I asked her what it was, but she just shouted at me saying, 'Work is work!'” said Ma Thiri.
She says at first she was reluctant to go, but eventually gave in because the employer said she wouldn’t get any money if she didn’t go and work. When she arrived at the massage parlor, aged 17, Ma Thiri and another young girl were ordered to go and visit a Chinese man every day and provide sexual services.
After the 10th visit, Ma Thiri’s friend couldn’t take it anymore and committed suicide. When the police arrived, Ma Thiri was taken back to Mae Sot and eventually rescued by FFW.
“If I had known how dangerous Mae Sot is, I never would have come here,” she said.
In order to break the cycle and prevent victims being re-trafficked, the FFW provides counseling—a “loving environment”—in the safe house, as well as vocational skills. The staff said their aim is to stop the women from being vulnerable to traffickers.
“If we train them so they can stand on their own two feet and earn an income then this will reduce the amount of trafficking,” said Khun Mink. “They will not need to travel and be exploited, and will be able to go back to their communities and inform others about the dangers of being trafficked.”
But a lack of education and training is not the only obstacle to solving the growing trafficking crisis in Mae Sot.
According to Khun Mink there needs to be a major shift in the way the police think about trafficking. For many of the immigration and police officials, trafficking is big business as they often receive bribes to clear cars at checkpoints or are actually involved in organizing the trafficking themselves.
“This is partly due to low salaries,” said Khun Mink. “So we need to see an increase in salaries for police, and technology being provided so they can track the cases.
“We need to see reform … not just a reform in the police service, but a revolution. And a complete change of mentality how they look at this issue,” she said.
Khun Mink said she has noticed a young generation of policemen who are more interested and helpful in the struggle against anti-human trafficking. She said there has also been a shift in the legal paradigm, with Thai courts punishing Burmese traffickers more heavily than before.
However, according to a former people smuggler, a Burmese man born in Myawaddy, the Thai police are so involved in the trafficking in Mae Sot that it will take years to stop the practice. He recently gave up his trafficking work after a car he sent to Bangkok with Burmese in the back had an accident killing several of the passengers.
“We used to pay the police 20,000 baht [$600] per month to leave us alone,” he said. “Some traffickers pay per trip, some split the profits with the police. We always did it like this. It is true the police are involved at every step.
“We cannot just blame the Thais though,” he added. “Burmese people are also involved in the trafficking gangs. Also, the Burmese government is to blame for messing up the economy. That is why they are all coming here.”
Just last week, the Thai minister in charge of anti-human trafficking visited Mae Sot for an anti-trafficking concert. A massive platform was erected and famous singers flown in from Bangkok and Rangoon.
But the NGO stalls were pushed to the side with little attention being paid to their work. The main focus was on the performances. With so many people in Mae Sot suffering as a result of trafficking, the money probably could have been better spent.
“It doesn’t help if we just do concerts, we need real action,” said one young anti-trafficking activist standing at the edge of the concert. “Both Thailand and Burma need to wake up and realize that this will be a regional crisis if we don’t act now.”
The family of Ma Thiri, a young girl who recently arrived at the FFW shelter, apparently did not know the risks of sending their daughter to Thailand. When a broker came to their home offering to take Ma Thiri for free, they jumped at the opportunity.
“My mother is just an alcohol brewer,” Ma Thiri said. “We are very poor. So I was excited to go to Thailand. I wanted to be like the rich and beautiful Thai girls on TV.”
At first she worked as a housemaid, but her employer’s husband did not like her, so she was told to find another job. At her next job, her employer did not pay her for three months then told her that she had to leave and work in a massage parlor.
“I didn’t know what a massage parlor was—I asked her what it was, but she just shouted at me saying, 'Work is work!'” said Ma Thiri.
She says at first she was reluctant to go, but eventually gave in because the employer said she wouldn’t get any money if she didn’t go and work. When she arrived at the massage parlor, aged 17, Ma Thiri and another young girl were ordered to go and visit a Chinese man every day and provide sexual services.
After the 10th visit, Ma Thiri’s friend couldn’t take it anymore and committed suicide. When the police arrived, Ma Thiri was taken back to Mae Sot and eventually rescued by FFW.
“If I had known how dangerous Mae Sot is, I never would have come here,” she said.
In order to break the cycle and prevent victims being re-trafficked, the FFW provides counseling—a “loving environment”—in the safe house, as well as vocational skills. The staff said their aim is to stop the women from being vulnerable to traffickers.
“If we train them so they can stand on their own two feet and earn an income then this will reduce the amount of trafficking,” said Khun Mink. “They will not need to travel and be exploited, and will be able to go back to their communities and inform others about the dangers of being trafficked.”
But a lack of education and training is not the only obstacle to solving the growing trafficking crisis in Mae Sot.
According to Khun Mink there needs to be a major shift in the way the police think about trafficking. For many of the immigration and police officials, trafficking is big business as they often receive bribes to clear cars at checkpoints or are actually involved in organizing the trafficking themselves.
“This is partly due to low salaries,” said Khun Mink. “So we need to see an increase in salaries for police, and technology being provided so they can track the cases.
“We need to see reform … not just a reform in the police service, but a revolution. And a complete change of mentality how they look at this issue,” she said.
Khun Mink said she has noticed a young generation of policemen who are more interested and helpful in the struggle against anti-human trafficking. She said there has also been a shift in the legal paradigm, with Thai courts punishing Burmese traffickers more heavily than before.
However, according to a former people smuggler, a Burmese man born in Myawaddy, the Thai police are so involved in the trafficking in Mae Sot that it will take years to stop the practice. He recently gave up his trafficking work after a car he sent to Bangkok with Burmese in the back had an accident killing several of the passengers.
“We used to pay the police 20,000 baht [$600] per month to leave us alone,” he said. “Some traffickers pay per trip, some split the profits with the police. We always did it like this. It is true the police are involved at every step.
“We cannot just blame the Thais though,” he added. “Burmese people are also involved in the trafficking gangs. Also, the Burmese government is to blame for messing up the economy. That is why they are all coming here.”
Just last week, the Thai minister in charge of anti-human trafficking visited Mae Sot for an anti-trafficking concert. A massive platform was erected and famous singers flown in from Bangkok and Rangoon.
But the NGO stalls were pushed to the side with little attention being paid to their work. The main focus was on the performances. With so many people in Mae Sot suffering as a result of trafficking, the money probably could have been better spent.
“It doesn’t help if we just do concerts, we need real action,” said one young anti-trafficking activist standing at the edge of the concert. “Both Thailand and Burma need to wake up and realize that this will be a regional crisis if we don’t act now.”
Source: The Irrawaddy
Mae Sot's Human Trafficking Crisis Worsens
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