Human trafficking

A group of seven Vietnamese and Cambodian girls were freed during a raid on a brothel in Battambang province on 23 December in which three suspected brokers were arrested, according to anti-human trafficking police. Officers entered the nameless “massage parlor” in Kamrieng district’s Boeng Raing commune at ...

They are mired in debt bondage, their pay slips are slashed by hidden fees and fabricated taxes, and they’re forced to work excessive hours in slave-like conditions absent of breaks and without the guarantee of overtime pay. This is the lot of migrant workers who ...

Thai authorities have detained 43 Lao women, some of whom appear underage, for illegally entering the country to work in the sex trade just two days after the Lao parliament passed an anti-human trafficking law to ensure protection for victims and punishments for perpetrators. Passed on ...

A DNA test has confirmed that a corpse unearthed on Indonesia’s Benjina Island is that of a Thai crew member of a fishing trawler, Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya said on 16 December.   Indonesia earlier believed the body was a Cambodian national, based on the seaman’s book found ...

A deputy Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB) chief in charge of handling human trafficking has been transferred to an inactive post after he complained about a heavy workload in handling human trafficking cases. National police chief Chakthip Chaijinda said on 15 December he had ordered the transfer of ...

Pervasive human trafficking has helped turn Thailand into one of the world’s biggest shrimp providers. Despite repeated promises by businesses and government to clean up the country’s US$7 billion seafood export industry, an Associated Press investigation has found shrimp peeled by modern-day slaves is reaching ...

Police on 11 December said they were considering suing a former officer investigating human trafficking for defamation over comments he made implicating senior officials in the trade. Pol Maj Gen Paween Pongsirin arrived in Melbourne a few days ago and told the Australian Broadcasting Corp on 10 ...

Fishermen who were enslaved and in some cases held captive for a decade aboard seafood trawlers in Indonesia are now taking part in a lawsuit against one of the accused companies.  The 14 Myanmar fishermen were flown back to Indonesia to serve as witnesses in the ...

Bangladesh and Myanmar remain at odds over 28 people who were among more than 900 rescued at sea in May, after being abandoned by human traffickers. Following the repatriation of 48 Bangladeshi nationals on 2 December, the Bangladesh embassy in Yangon said in a statement that ...

A three-year investigation into slavery on Thailand’s fishing boats has uncovered a well-oiled system of trafficking, abuse and exploitation in the southern port of Kantang, leading to eight arrests this month, a campaign group said on 30 November. The owner of a fishing company, three enforcers ...