This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

240827Z Feb 06

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 BANGKOK 001115 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR G/TIP, EAP/MLS, DRL/IL, PRM/PRP 
DEPT OF LABOR FOR ILAB - MARK MITTELHAUSER AND BRANDIE 
SASSER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KWMN KCRM ELAB PHUM KJUS TH
SUBJECT: UPDATE ON TRAFFICKING PROJECTS IN NORTHERN THAILAND 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  Anti-trafficking NGOs in northern Thailand report 
that increased attention to TIP has caused changes in the 
trafficking business.  Traffickers are forced to work harder for 
fewer gains; however, they are also working smarter, better 
disguising illicit businesses and creating broad networks that 
emulate other forms of organized crime.  In addition, evidence 
suggests that the well-trodden routes to Bangkok are being 
redirected to the South, which is alleged by Thai police and 
international NGOs to be a growing transit point for destinations 
elsewhere in Southeast Asia.  The Golden Triangle -- historically a 
Bermuda Triangle for trafficking -- is saturated with NGOs 
addressing the problem.  Nonetheless, the root causes of trafficking 
are still prevalent, with the most vulnerable populations being the 
poor, the uneducated, and members of stateless hill tribes.  The 
Thai police force has increased its awareness about TIP issues in 
recent years, but low-ranking, low-paid officers are still allegedly 
not always on the side of the law.  Three Emboffs recently visited 
eight NGOs in Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai that have received, or 
currently receive, DOS funding, to be updated on their programs. 
End Summary. 
 
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DEPDC 
----- 
 
¶2. (U) The Development and Education Programme for Daughters and 
Communities (DEPDC) was created in 1989 by Director Sompop Jantraka, 
two-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee and a Time Magazine Asian Hero in 
¶2002.  Sompop told Emboffs that that a Peace Corps volunteer had 
greatly influenced him in his youth, developing in him an awareness 
of human rights and encouraging him to obtain a higher education. 
Sompop now does the same for youth in the north.  His NGO in Mae 
Sai, a small town near the Burmese border, is reminiscent of a 
school campus with its open fields and playgrounds.  DEPDC focuses 
its activities on education, believing it to be an antidote to the 
desperate decisions made by families to sell young girls into labor. 
 Sompop noted that he would like to build a long term 
anti-trafficking network, but having only NGO status makes this goal 
difficult. 
 
¶3. (U) DEPDC's staff of 44, including nine Thai and six 
international volunteers, manages 314 students.  Fifty-six children 
live on DEPDC's campus and study at the local government school. 
DEPDC's projects include a half day school that provides free day 
care for local minority children (Shan, Tai Lue and Akha tribes), 
6-16 years old, who lack citizenship or are too poor to enroll in 
the formal education system.  DEPDC also runs a Border Child 
Protection and Rights Center (BCPR), a network of NGOs, government, 
and community organizations that operates a 24-hour shelter and 
conducts emergency rescues for children who have been raped, 
orphaned, trafficked, or are homeless. 
 
¶4. (U) Another DEPDC project, the Mekong Youth Network (MYN), 
selects young women from Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and China to be 
trained for one year in TIP issues.  They return to educate their 
communities in the legal and cultural ramifications of human 
trafficking.  Fourteen of these future community leaders described 
to Emboffs the prevalence of "employment agents" visiting rural 
villages afflicted by poverty and drought, offering ostensibly 
legitimate work to underage youths willing to cross into Thailand. 
In some cases, the families of these youths pay exorbitant up-front 
employment fees; in others, the workers find themselves in immediate 
debt due to placement fees to be paid off by future earnings.  One 
Laotian girl described the ease with which children crossed the 
Thai-Laos border in the company of any adult, not necessarily a 
parent, by paying bribes to border guards.  She said her home 
village in Laos had 27 children classified as missing in the past 
two years.  Many schoolchildren leave Laos to find work in Thailand 
during their 2-month summer break, she said, but a myth has been 
perpetuated that they will be fined 1700 baht (USD 42.50) once they 
try to return. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Sompop told Emboffs that finding the "kingpins" of 
trafficking activity has become nearly impossible, as its networks 
are an extensive and intricate web of actors.  Traffickers allegedly 
maintain ties with corrupt elements in the police force, and obtain 
funding for their activities through bank loans given for seemingly 
legitimate entertainment centers such as hotels and karaoke bars. 
Death threats have caused Sompop to scale back his efforts to 
apprehend traffickers, and to focus more on prevention. 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
MEKONG INDIGENOUS CHILD RIGHTS HOME (MRICRH) 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (U) Mekong Regional Indigenous Child Rights Home (MRICRH) in Mae 
Chan is both a government and non-governmental organization, 
co-administered through the Ministry of Social Development and Human 
Security, and DEPDC.  MRICRH has created a network of social 
programs for children of abuse, exploitation, and neglect.  Family 
and psychological counseling, medical services, and legal help 
(provided by the State Department-funded International Justice 
Mission, or IJM) are offered. 
 
¶7. (U) MRICRH focuses on family rehabilitation to prevent 
trafficking cases.  A voluntary network locates the families of 
victims, and assesses the home environment before deciding whether 
repatriation is appropriate.  Hill tribe leaders are engaged in the 
victims' rehabilitation process, to correct the negative stigma 
often associated with a victim's return.  This community involvement 
is, according to MRICRH, one reason for the area's dramatic decrease 
in TIP cases, from 94 cases in 2004 to 53 cases in 2005.  Although 
cases are decreasing, MRICH emphasized that their degree of severity 
is increasing. 
 
---------------- 
MIRROR ART GROUP 
---------------- 
 
¶8. (U) Mirror Art Group (MAG) is run by a young dynamic team, 
focused on strengthening tribal villages and their customs.  Located 
on artfully designed grounds, with clay huts and foot bridges 
crossing a small river, the group supports tribal communities 
through activities including an anti-drug community network, a 
volunteer teacher program, a second hand clothing drive, and a 
project to combat trafficking.  They also operate a television 
station, featuring productions by and for hilltribe members, which 
has won a World Bank award for innovation.  The team has also 
produced short film pieces describing their work, with past USG 
funding prominently acknowledged in the DVDs they have shown to an 
estimated 20,000 viewers so far.  MAG also recently won a USD 15,000 
grant under EAP's 2005 Women's Issues Fund. 
 
¶9. (U) MAG sees a direct relationship between lack of citizenship 
and vulnerability to trafficking.  They estimate that 50,000 of 
Thailand's hill tribe children lack Thai citizenship, despite being 
born in country, and have limited access to education, healthcare, 
labor rights, and other social benefits.  Hill tribe members are 
given color-coded identity cards indicating their status, and the 
extent to which they may travel, work, or own property.  Offenders 
face fines and a jail term.  Given these conditions, MAG claims that 
traffickers can exploit stateless people merely through offering 
them job opportunities, without needing to deceive or coerce.  MAG 
identified six types of stateless people: 
 
- Morgans (sea gypsies) and hill tribe people, who have 
  resided in Thailand for generations; 
- Migrants, who are subject to complicated laws about 
  citizenship eligibility; 
- Displaced Thais, who found themselves in Burma when the 
  border shifted east after World War II; 
- Those without any record of birth; 
- Those who lost registration rights after leaving their 
  villages to work elsewhere, and did not re-register; 
- Those who do not know their identity. 
 
------------------- 
MAE SUAY LAW CENTER 
------------------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) Mae Suay Law Center was founded by two former employees of 
the Catholic Commission for Ethnic Groups (CEG), an organization 
that was given funding by DOS to gain citizenship for hilltribes. 
Located in the Mae Suay district of Chiang Rai, the Mae Suay Law 
Center works to change and implement policy on citizenship for 
hilltribes.  Their lawyers push policy through the government on the 
national level, and then push government workers to implement 
changes on the local level.  (Note: Representatives of Mae Suay Law 
Center reported that policy changes do not always filter down to 
rural levels, as some local government employees feel they are 
granting favors to constituents, as opposed to fulfilling legal 
obligations.  End note.) 
 
¶11. (U) Mae Suay Law Center belongs to a consortium of lawyers 
working on stateless issues, composed of IJM, CEG, and the Mirror 
Art group.  Forty villages in the area each provide one 
representative to receive training twice per month, throughout one 
year, to become a legal resource for their village.  Training 
includes information about rights extending beyond citizenship, 
specifically regarding labor protection, as laborers are 
increasingly moving south to Hat Yai to work in tuna canning 
factories, rubber glove factories, and in apparel. 
 
-------- 
TRAFCORD 
-------- 
 
¶12. (U) Trafcord's program coordinator, Ben Svasti, briefed Emboffs 
at his office, housed in the Chiang Mai provincial hall.  Trafcord's 
main role is to facilitate coordination between nine provinces in 
northern Thailand, mostly with government agencies and NGOs working 
on children's and women's issues in border towns.  The network is 
large and multidisciplinary, encompassing legal aid organizations, 
shelters, forensics and medical teams, and the public prosecutor's 
office. 
 
¶13. (U) Trafcord handled 22 cases in 2005 (as many as 50 victims can 
be involved in one case).  Of these, 62 percent were related to 
prostitution; 22 percent were classified as at-risk persons; 8 
percent related to sex-abuse; 4 percent forced-labor; and 4 percent 
child beggars.  The victims' nationalities are overwhelmingly 
Burmese, usually Shan, making up 76 percent of the cases.  Thais are 
involved in 10 percent of cases, with the remaining 14 percent being 
Chinese, Laos, and others. 
 
¶14. (U) Four cases handled by Trafcord resulted in sentencing in 
¶2005.  They are as follows. 
 
- On July 12, 2005, the Fang district court in Chiang Mai sentenced 
Ms. Wandee Boonsawat to 16 years of imprisonment for the charge of 
procurer according to the 1996 Prevention and Suppression of 
Prostitution Act, the Criminal Code, and the 1997 Act on Measures to 
Prevent and Suppress Trafficking in Women and Children.  The 
14-year-old victim was trafficked to Bangkok and forced into 
prostitution in a massage parlor.  Her mother brought the case to 
TRAFCORD in 2003, and the victim is now under TRAFCORD's care for 
professional training and education. 
 
- On October 13, 2005, the Lampang Court in Muang district sentenced 
Mr. Boonseub Sangchai and Ms. Thitima Choadam to 10 years each for 
the charge of procurer under the 1996 Prevention and Suppression of 
Prostitution Act.  TRAFCORD and the Lampang Multidisciplinary Team 
(LMT) rescued 14 girls and women from the brothel masquerading as an 
entertainment place, including two girls aged 14 and 16 years old. 
These two girls received therapy and occupational training through 
TRAFCORD's network.  TRAFCORD also filed for compensation under the 
Act of Compensation for Injured Persons, and won 30,000 baht (USD 
750) for the victims, making it the first TIP case in Thailand to be 
awarded under the Act of Compensation. 
 
- On October 20, 2005 the Lampang Court sentenced Ms. Pimpa Chan-ay 
to 16 years of imprisonment, and Mr. Temsak Musikapoom and Ms. 
Supapan Saodee to 15 years of imprisonment for the charge of 
procurer according to the 1996 Prevention and Suppression of 
Prostitution Act and 1979 Immigration Act.  In May 2004, TRAFCORD 
and MDT rescued five Laotian TIP victims from Pimpa Bar Beer, which 
served as a brothel.  The Laotian trafficker is still at large. 
 
- On December 19, 2005 the Chiang Mai Court sentenced Mr. Ayo (aka 
Yo or Cheunlong Chaemue) to 13 years and 6 months of imprisonment 
for the charge of procurer of children under 15 years old according 
to the Criminal Code.  The victims are street boys aged 12, 15, and 
17 years old.  Mr. Ayo procured them for commercial sex with an 
Italian man, who has since fled the country.  A warrant is out for 
his arrest.  TRAFCORD has been investigating this case for the last 
year, in coordination with Italian Embassy, and provided legal and 
social welfare assistances in order to prepare the victims for the 
justice system. 
 
¶15. (U) Svasti noted that trafficking victims in Thailand are 
"rarely overjoyed" to be rescued, because even debt bondage can be 
preferable to the poverty and family problems they endured in their 
hometowns.  In addition, Thailand's brothels do not approach the 
extreme, locked-in-chains conditions found elsewhere, such as in 
India.  Trafficked victims who are unable to receive vocational 
training or education usually return quickly to their former lives 
and are susceptible to being trafficked again.  Svasti explained 
that the MOUs signed with Cambodia and Laos are key to the success 
of trafficking prevention programs, as they are binding agreements 
that establish procedures for law implementation; for example, MOUs 
allow trafficking laws to supersede national immigration laws. An 
MOU with Burma is desirable, he said, but not in the cards for the 
near future due to the political situation there. 
 
¶16. (SBU) When asked about Trafcord's relationship with the police, 
Svasti replied that much has changed in the last 5 years. 
Previously, Trafcord could contact one lone trustworthy cop.  Now, 
the understanding of human trafficking has increased (despite a 
profound lack of knowledge about TIP laws) and senior officers will 
not risk their jobs by engaging in TIP-related corruption.  Younger 
officers, however, are still willing to accept bribes to supplement 
meager salaries.  Svasti explained that male police officers retain 
ingrained attitudes regarding women's rights and gender issues that 
are common in Asia, and that need to be addressed during police 
training. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
INTER MOUNTAIN PEOPLES EDUCATION AND CULTURE IN 
THAILAND (IMPECT) 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶17. (U) The Inter Mountain Peoples Education and Culture in Thailand 
Association (IMPECT) is an indigenous and tribal NGO founded and 
staffed by representatives from indigenous communities.  IMPECT 
educates the public about its legal rights, working with 200-300 
communities within seven tribal groups: the Akha, Hmong, Lahu, Lisu, 
Lua, Karen, and Mien.  IMPECT and IJM work together in five 
districts in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.  Under the IJM partnership, 
they have helped obtain citizenship for 4,000 - 5,000 people, and 
follow up in some areas with DNA testing to obtain citizenship 
rights for children. 
 
¶18. (SBU) As with Mae Suay Law Center, IMPECT attested that 
implementing policy at district levels is difficult, finding that 
some officials respond only to bribes.  IMPECT representatives told 
Emboffs that villagers do not dare stand up to officials to demand 
their rights, because "they will always suffer.  They are not 
considered Thai, which is why we need to serve them." 
 
¶19. (U) IMPECT has also worked in the area of education for tribal 
children.  In the past, non-citizens were allowed to go to school, 
but not to receive certificates of study.  New requirements 
authorize all students to receive certificates, but IMPECT finds 
that this is often ignored, or that certificates for tribal children 
will be marked with a stamp of "No Citizenship."  IMPECT works with 
villages and schools to obtain equal educational rights for hill 
tribe children. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
ILO-FUNDED RESEARCH ON WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶20. (U) Professor Nongyao, from Chiang Mai University, met with 
Emboffs to discuss her ILO-funded research: to understand the worst 
forms of child labor within five northern Thai provinces, including 
Tak, Chiang Rai, and Udorn Ratchathani.  Professor Nongyao 
corroborated IMPECT's statement that, in practice, few schools allow 
non-Thai children to enroll, despite being a significant percent of 
the population: in 2003, 30 percent of the births in the Mae Sot 
Hospital were to migrant workers.  In 2005, that number rose to 42 
percent.  As an alternative to school, many of these children are in 
the labor force.  Of the villages in her study, Professor Nongyao 
noted that almost 20 percent of the agricultural labor force is less 
than 18 years old.  Of these, 50 percent are less than 15 years old. 
 
 
¶21. (U) Most of these children are Burmese Karen, and some Shan. 
Their work is hazardous, with many of them spraying chemicals on 
rose plantations, fruit trees, and vegetables, up to four times per 
month.  When interviewed, the children said they were glad to 
perform chemical sprays, as it pays 90 baht (USD 2.25) versus the 
average 50 baht (USD 1.25) for other agricultural tasks.  Professor 
Nongyao believes that the worst forms of child labor can be reduced 
to simply child labor, by providing a safer work atmosphere. 
 
--------------------------------- 
NGO AND IJM STAKEHOLDERS' MEETING 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶22. (U) A stakeholders' meeting, moderated by a DOL-contracted 
independent evaluation team from Chulalongkorn University in 
Bangkok, brought together anti-trafficking NGOs throughout northern 
Thailand that have collaborated with IJM.  The meeting focused on 
IJM's ability to meet original objectives of the project, "Thailand 
Sex Trafficking Taskforce: Prevention Placement Program," which ran 
from 2003 to 2005.  The project aimed to put in place a 
comprehensive, replicable strategy to combat TIP through prevention, 
victim removal and rehabilitation activities (See reftel Bangkok 
827.) 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
VOLUNTEER GROUP FOR CHILD DEVELOPMENT (VGDC) 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶23. (U) The Volunteer Group for Child Development Foundation (VGCD) 
is run by Anuchon Hualsong, a former recipient of the Embassy's 
International Volunteer (IV) program.  VGCD's drop-in center is 
located near the center of Chiang Mai, with wide-open doors and 
youth sitting at a table outside.  Inside, Emboffs glimpsed a 
weights machine, educational posters, and children sitting on the 
floor eating and talking, all of them greeting their visitors with a 
traditional Thai "wai". 
 
¶24. (U) Anuchon, a man of about 30 years old, explained that two 
groups of children come to the drop-in center: urban children from 
broken families, and those from hill tribes seeking an income in 
Chiang Mai.  Children from both groups are at risk of, or involved 
in, drug use and prostitution.  Anuchon estimated that 5-20 children 
visit the drop-in shelter per day.  The shelter has 3 staff members, 
as well as a Big Brother, Big Sister program.  Some of the children 
still work at their jobs, and some are still street kids.  VGDC also 
runs a live-in shelter in Sankampang, a suburb of Chiang Mai, which 
currently houses 19 children aged 7-16. 
 
¶25. (U) VGCD's current activities include basic education in Thai, 
health care, and the risks of city life; staff outreach to street 
children; coordination with Trafcord and the Center for Protection 
of Children's Rights; and a trafficking awareness campaign, with 
stickers and pamphlets distributed by the children. (Note: VGCD 
found that bars and clubs would open their doors when children did 
the canvassing.  Adults were not so welcome. End note.)  In 
addition, VGCD has a center with a garden outside of the city for 
the children to visit. 
 
¶26. (U) VGCD echoed Trafcord, stating that children, especially the 
boys, are often uncooperative with efforts to remove them from 
activities in prostitution and labor.   The income it provides 
sustains them.  In addition, the length of court procedures causes 
reluctance to testify against traffickers.  VGCD has changed its 
approach from pressing criminal charges, which overwhelms their 
resources, to being informants for the police.  Overall, VGCD aims 
to convince the children that they can survive in the city without 
working in prostitution.