Shawn Abrahamson

Writing 39C
Composition 2: Final
Professor Kaminski
May 31, 2014

A Challenge to Overcome in Thailand

(http://cjaye57.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/bid-to-get-help-for-young-sex-victims/)

According to Victims Stories within the U.S. Department of States Trafficking in
Persons Report 2011, Maria came to the United States with some 50 other Filipino
nationals who were promised housing, transportation, and lucrative jobs at country clubs
and hotels under the H2B guest worker program. Like the others, Maria dutifully paid the
substantial recruitment fees to come to the United States. But when she arrived, she found
that there was no employment secured for her. She did not work for weeks, but the
recruiters seized her passport and prohibited her from leaving their house. She and other
workers slept side-by-side on the floors of the kitchen, garage, and dining room. They
were fed primarily chicken feet and innards. When the workers complained, the recruiters
threatened to call the police or immigration services to arrest and deport them.
This is one example of the many repugnant lifestyles of trafficked victims, 80%
mostly being females, that are brought into the atrocious system of human trafficking.
Universal human trafficking is the second biggest and fastest-growing organized crime in
the world falling behind drug trafficking and has evolved into modern-day slavery. Sex
trafficking, being one of the many types of human trafficking that eventually leads into
prostitution, sexual exploitation, and forced labor, has been a problem for decades as a
result of multiple vulnerability factors such as: poverty, lack of education, awareness and
employment, dysfunctional families, and statelessness. Presumably, Thailand is the
largest source in its country to fall into the pits of this global epidemic and mainly occurs
within the Mekong Sub-region, consisting of Thailand, Burma, Laos, the Yunnan
province of China, Cambodia and Vietnam, and remains a top destination for the sending,
receiving, and transit of human trafficking.
Trafficking in Thailand has become such a well-known and common crime that it
would be no surprise to see it happen in the streets of the country. It is seen as a normalcy
and is socially accepted in Thailand because of the shifted perception over centuries upon
prostitution and commercial slavery. One primary event that contributed to the
consciousness of sex slavery is the Rest and Recreation treaty issued by the U.S
military and Thai government during the Vietnam War, from 1955 to 1970. Influxes of
eager, nostalgic, and jaded U.S. soldiers stationed in Thailand that led to the skyrocket
demand for commercial slavery, caused women to be looked at even more inferior, and
resulted in a clearer view of the cultural acceptance of prostitution in Thailand. A more
culturally accepted outlook formed because both the demand side (U.S. soldiers desires)
and the supply side, women and children that needed to make money, met their needs. It
was a win-win situation on both sides, alternating perception upon citizens: a solution to
their problems. This positive reassurance led to a dominant part in the shifted perception
of sex slavery and prostitution in Thailand, but this outcome inflicted negative effects
correlating with an increase of infectious diseaserelated mortality rates for select
diseases. It is well known that prostitutes, sex slaves, and victims of sex trafficking are
exposed to many diseases throughout their lives. The two graphs below, seized from an
article published in 2004 belonging to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
show the infectious disease mortality rates in Thailand from 1958-2009 and shortly
thereafter three years the treaty in Thailand was established.

(http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/18/11/12-0637-f4.htm)
Figure B shows the mortality rates of TB and HIV/AIDS mortality rate by 100,000
population, exhibiting the mortality rates being the highest from 1958-1970, during the
Vietnam War. Figure E portrays sexually transmitted infections and the highest mortality
rates from this graph seem to have occurred in the early years of the war/treaty. Notably,
the country still continues to suffer from the epidemics throughout the years. Below is a
chart that shows the number of people living with HIV in Thailand up until 2010.

(http://www.unaids.org/en/dataanalysis/datatools/aidsinfo/)
Thailands population today contains approximately 67 million people, recorded
by the World Population Review, published April 2, 2014, and around 2.2 million of
those people are part of northern Thailands Hill Tribe population. The term Hill
Tribe refers to the many different ethnic minority groups living in the mountains of the
country. Some hill tribes have been a part of the highlands of Thailand for hundreds and
thousands of years, prior to the area even being considered a part of the Thai state.
According to the Law Society of Thailand figures, about less than half of the population
are identified as Thai citizens, despite a much larger percentage having been born in the
country. The non-citizenship of these several hundred thousand people within the tribes is
a big vulnerability factor, marking statelessness as an alarming trafficking issue because
they are considered immigrants and undesirables from the government, allowing lucrative
organizational traffickers to benefit from this. Reported by the UNESCO, lack of
citizenship is one of the main risk factors for women and girls from hill tribes to become
victims of sex trafficking because they do not have access to social welfare service and
health care coverage, in addition to not being protected by labor laws. Human rights
violations, discrimination from urban Thailand (plagued by stereotypes), and negligence
of the Government, are circumstances that directly lead the tribes to live into poverty and
high vulnerability to being trafficked. The table below shows the poverty rates between
central Thailand and northern Thailand from the years 1996 to 2008.


(http://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/Thailand_Discussion_Paper_Economic_Shocks
_and_Vulnerable_Mar2.pdf)
Data shows that in the year 2000, poverty rates in northern Thailand were more than
double the percentage of poverty within central Thailand.
As a result of statelessness, the hill tribes are not protected under Thai law and are
considered immigrants. Like Marias story of trafficking, these non-citizens, although
most born in Thailand, do not have any other option but to easily be lured by the offers of
false higher-waged employment by lucrative traffickers. If Maria or a non-citizen looked
to police enforcement for help they would be deported right away, leaving them helpless
and hopeless. Not only do they have risk of deportation, they have a risk of eviction from
their owned land. Many of these hill tribes speak their own language because of the
distant wall created between the rural and urban areas of Thailand, generating a language
barrier, developing more difficulties for the tribes. This barrier gives power and
advantages to the traffickers that use this as a key advantage over their victims.
In 2001, the Thai cabinet issued a governmental survey to grant temporary
residency for one year and for others lacking identification, but due to the language
barrier between the tribal and national, little highland minorities were able to obtain
citizenship, but not many. This decreased the overall amount of stateless minorities, but it
was reported that in 2005 and 2006 there were still over 200,000 highland minorities that
were not able to obtain citizenship because of the additional paperwork that was required
for the process; to show that their parents had been born in Thailand. But accessing this
documentation is a difficult task for those born in the remote mountain areas and those
who do not have information on their place of origin and parentage. Found within The
International Observatory on Statelessness, in 2006, the Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra declared that two million stateless people would be granted Thai citizenship.
The plan was coordinated to cover different groups of stateless people, including children
studying in schools in Thailand and immigrants who have been living in the kingdom for
at least 10 consecutive years. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister was overthrown later that
year, and procedures for acquiring citizenship in Thailand have yet to be reconstructed.
The government actions taken to improve these dilemmas are effortless.
Obtaining citizenship is chief among the most promising measures to combat sex
trafficking in the hill tribes. Utilizing an efficient management process, this emancipation
for developing a sustainable network of protection, education, employment, and health-
care in northern Thailand will implement a dual approach of short-term welfare and long-
term prevention of trafficking and building economy capacity. Further supported by a
broad support system of resources and organizations from international groups, the
citizenship emphasizes enslavement and humanitarian life for hill tribe members and
functions on a deeper root research-model of proven administration interventions and
social accountability.
Although these highland minorities have been living in the mountains of Thailand
for centuries, some sources estimate that 40-60% of hill tribe individuals are denied
citizenship. Other non-citizens do not get accepted nor rejected and are left in idle for
years, creating a big number of victims trafficked. However, there is a straightforward
process to acquire the proper documentation then the government has to review these
applications and either accept or reject, which takes around 3 months. The International
Justice Mission, a NGO, have advocated for these men and women impelling through the
application process for two years and they still have yet to receive citizenship. Within the
International Justice Missions article, IJM Thailand: Hundreds Anxiously Await Proof
of Citizenship, published February 11, 2014, reports, In 2012, IJM staff reached an
impasse in one particular district in northern Thailandhundreds of applications had
stacked up, and none were being approved or rejected. They weren't moving at all. The
families were stuck waiting in a dangerous state of limbo. This is a concrete example of
the Thai governments efforts to do something about the vulnerable indigenous people
and needs to change. With continued advocacy efforts and involvement of administrative
courts, on December 24, 2013, IJMs complaint became up for judgment and the court
ordered the district government to review the undecided citizenship applications within
90 days, mandating that these citizenship applications must be reviewed.
The IJM was placed first on Slavery No More website that contains a list of
Non-Governmental Organizations that have contributed the most to trafficking. Most
common-known NGOs such as the Polaris project, Somaly Mam, Not For Sale
Campaign, etc., are organizations that support survivors and help to empower survivors
of trafficking and exploitation but empowering survivors will not resolve the reason why
they became survivors in the first place: vulnerability. Upon entering into the Somaly.org
website, an important message popped out indicating the resignation of Somaly Mam
from a third party investigation into allegations concerning the personal history of
Somaly Mam and Somana.

(http://www.somaly.org/)

This is a major setback for obvious reasons: Somaly Mam was the founder and
leader of the organization and the resignation causes a delay that may cost lives and
resources. Instead of focusing on organizations that support and raise awareness, we
should be focusing on supporting groups like
IJM that protect the impoverished from
savagery by working with local authorities
to rescue victims, bring criminals to justice,
restore survivors, and strengthen justice
systems by assisting the most vulnerable
several hundred thousand statelessness
northern Thailand tribes that continue to fall
deeper into poverty with the least resources
(http://www.thailand-
guide.org/thailand-nature-tours/hill-
tribes.htm) A map showing the North
and Northeast regions of Thailand.

and help. Stated in the Trafficking in Persons report 2013, The government disbursed
the equivalent of approximately $3.7 million for anti-trafficking efforts in 2012 and
reported investigating 305 trafficking cases, versus 83 in 2011, but initiated prosecutions
in only 27 cases during the year and obtained only 10 convictions. The failure to meet
the minimum standards for elimination of trafficking has cost Thailand to fall onto Tier 2
Watch List for the fourth consecutive year. The funds used for the elimination of
trafficking can be better implemented by contributing funds to citizenship, education,
health-care, and anti-trafficking organizations such as IJM and the National Health
Security Office (NHSO) that create better futures for the northern hill tribes. The NHSO
contains a health care plan for non-citizenship hill-tribe people that is under a health care
fund created by the Public Health Ministry called, Health Care Rights for Non-
citizenship Persons and has assured that more than 90,000 non-citizenship hill-tribe
people will still have access to health care services as of March 14, 2014. The
International Justice Missions citizenship team has provided their vital protection to
more than 10,000 hill tribe members to date. Funding organizations like these can create
an efficient management process to grant citizenship to the approximately 400,000 hill
tribes that are stateless. With citizenship they can gain access to welfare services such as
health-care, education, and legal jobs that will prevent the vulnerability of future possible
victims and will improve Thailands economy regarding education because as the
population of Thailand increases, the enrollment statistics of women enrolling in schools
are also decreasing. The chart below shows the pattern of the population growing in size
and the other (pink) chart shows a pattern of decrease in the enrollment of females in a
school-age population.


( http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/thailand-population/)
(http://www.wikigender.org/index.php/Women's_Education_and_Development_in_
Thailand)











As citizenship is awarded, the
enrollment rates of students will
increase and may boost the Thailand
economy. A similar situation in the U.S.
is being discussed regarding granting
undocumented immigrants citizenship
and how it will boost the U.S. Economy.
The Center for American Progress
report, 300 Million Engines of Growth,
indicates that such a decision would
increase wages of undocumented
immigrants by 15%. Then, in turn, the
decision would later provide additional
tax revenue at the local, state and
federal level that could help create
American jobs and boost the countrys
gross domestic product. The report also provides a chart that shows how
legalization and citizenship help the economy, which is located to the left. With
more countries opening citizenship to undocumented immigrants, the economy will
improve. This opportunity gives hope to non-citizens because it grants equal human
rights.
(http://www.americanprogress.org/wp-
content/uploads/2013/06/ProgressiveGro
wth-1.pdf)

The IJM organization made it happen for a nineteen-year-old girl
named KP, who was not a citizen but was born in Thailand. Without IJMs help, she
would not have received citizenship due to the poor management process that the
district office contained. When she was not a citizen, on IJMs page 19-Year-Old Can
Finally Call Thailand Her Home, KP had to abandon
her dream of becoming a nurse, because there was
no way she could continue her education after high
school without citizenship. But with help from IJM
after a couple of years of documentation and
complaints with the Administrative Court against
the district office, KP was able to obtain her
citizenship after a couple of months. Today, KP is
on the road to pursuing her dreams and is working
as a nurses assistant in a home for the elderly
while saving money to go back to school to become a nurse and give back to the
people in rural areas that do not have medical care. By granting citizenship to one
hill tribe member, their dream becomes reality, and granting citizenship to the
several hundred thousand, all our dreams become a reality when we can live in a
world of unity and safety from the bad that causes us to suffer as a human nation.
The IJM Thailand director Khem Saksakunmongkhon, declares, "And we look
forward to a day when we can celebrate with the hundreds of people who are still
waiting for the paperwork that will let them plan a better and safer future for their
children."
(http://www.ijmuk.org/nod
e/538)

Works Cited
1. Office of Public Affairs, Bureau. "Victims' Stories." U.S. Department of State. U.S.
Department of State, 2011. Web. 20 May 2014.
This source is very credible because it is from the Office of Public Affairs, Bureau and
part of the U.S. Department of State. The sort of information that this source provides is
of victims stories on human trafficking all over the world along with data about the
victims. For my research project, I specifically used the story about Maria for the
immigration aspect of it and the treatment of these women that travel into the U.S. that
were fooled by traffickers. This information is timely and complete because it is updated
every year, with new reports, and keeps its information up to date. This source is highly
relevant to my essay because it is based upon the conception of trafficking all over the
world.
2. Meade, Allison. "Thailand's Trouble with Human Trafficking." The Borgen Project
RSS2. N.p., 6 Aug. 2013. Web. 22 May 2014.

3. Aungkulanon, Suchunya. "Infectious Disease Mortality Rates, Thailand, 19582009 -
CDC." Volume 18, Number 11-November 2012 - Emerging Infectious Disease Journal -
CDC. N.p., 3 Oct. 2012. Web. 22 May 2014.

4. Facts, Thailand. "Thailand Population 2014." Thailand Population. World Popuation
Review, 2 Apr. 2014. Web. 31 May 2014.
<http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/thailand-population/>.

5. General. "Non-citizenship Hill-tribe People Assured of Health Care Rights."Thai PBS
English News. Thai PBS, 10 Mar. 2014. Web. 22 May 2014.
<http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/non-citizenship-hill-tribe-people-assured-health-care-
rights/>.

6. "SMF Is Dedicated to Eradicating the Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Women
and Girls in Southeast Asia, and Empowering Survivors as Part of the Solution." Home.
N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2014. <http://www.somaly.org/>.
7. A Discussion Paper.
"Economic Shocks and Vulnerable in Thailand: A Case Study of Rising Food and Fuel P
rices ." Economic Shocks and Vulnerable in Thailand: A Case Study of Rising Food and
Fuel Prices(n.d.): n.
pag. Economic Shocks and Vulnerable in Thailand: A Case Study of Rising Food and Fu
el Prices . Thailand Development Research Institute, 2 Mar. 2009. Web. 22 May 2014.

8. Erickson, Jennifer, and Michael Ettlinger. "300 Million Engines of Growth." (2013): n.
pag. AmericanProgress.org. American Progress, 6 June 2013. Web. 22 May 2014.
http://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/ProgressiveGrowth-1.pdf

9. Sheet, Fact. Hill Tribe Citizenship (n.d.): n. pag. Ijmuk.org. International Justice
Mission, 2010. Web. 22 May 2014.

10. Department of State, U.S. "Trafficking in Persons 2013." Trafficking in Persons
2013 (n.d.): n. pag. Diplomacy in Action. Bureau of Public Affairs, 9 Sept. 2013. Web. 22
May 2014. <http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2013/index.htm>.
This article provided data upon Thailand becoming a Tier 2 Watch list country for the
fourth consecutive year in a row because of the minimum efforts towards elimination of
trafficking. This source provided information about the government funds used for anti-
trafficking in Thailand and how it was used. This source was very informative and the
author/publisher is credible because it is a .gov website which means that it is up to date
and top notch. Personally, these are my favorite to use because they are very relevant and
reliable to my research. They discuss the problems that Thailand face with Human
trafficking and analyze the efforts made by Thailand as well as provides advice on what
the country needs to do in order to meet the standards of the Tier system.

11. "Thailand." The International Observatory on Statelessness. Online Innovative
Creations, 2006. Web. May-June 2014. http://www.nationalityforall.org/thailand
This source is a semi-new source because it was created and reported in the year 2006. It
provided information about Thai government efforts to grant citizenship to those who
were victims of stateless and describe the amount of hill tribe members that resided in
northern Thailand, which is what my research project revolved around. There was no
author or publisher but the website seems very well made and the information seems very
credible and due to other information I found, it made equal sense.

12. "IJM Thailand: Hundreds Anxiously Await Proof of Citizenship."International Justice
Mission. International Justice Mission, 11 Feb. 2014. Web. 02 June 2014.

13. "Slavery No More - Organizations." Slavery No More. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2014.
<http://www.slaverynomore.org/organizations/>.

14. "Thailand Population 2014." World Population Review. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 May 2014.
<http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/thailand-population/>.
15. "Women's Education and Development in Thailand." - Wikigender.org. N.p., n.d.
Web. 02 June 2014.
<http://www.wikigender.org/index.php/Women%27s_Education_and_Development_in_
Thailand>.
16. "19-Year-Old Can Finally Call Thailand Her Home." International Justice Mission
UK. International Justice Mission, 22 Feb. 2013. Web. 22 May 2014.
<http://www.ijmuk.org/node/538>.