Human Trafficking in a Globalized World
The most distinguishing feature of human trafficking is that it has targeted women for either sexual exploitation or for the provision of cheap labor in farms and industries. As Beeks and Amir (2006) point out, the trafficking in women in our modern world, exists not only in Thailand but also in many countries across the globe and this goes a long way into demonstrating how slavery as it was known before, has actually changed in form. In essence, the problem of human trafficking in global in context and it also proved to be one of the fastest growing criminal enterprises. (61)
This illicit business is quite attractive for traffickers because of the economic returns that it brings, given the fact that it is also much less risky. In fact, it is estimated that human traffickers operating in organized criminal gangs garner approximately 7 to 12 each year from trafficking in women. Notably, the country that tops the list where this illicit business has flourished is Thailand, closely followed by Philippines, which have been the major transit countries in many years. Recently, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union countries have also become significant market for trading in women (Beeks and Amir, 2006, p. 61).
According to Beeks and Amir (2006) the root causes of human trafficking are uniform in all countries where the trade is conducted, Thailand inclusive. These include unemployment, abject poverty the low social and economic status of women in their respective countries, inadequate social-economic opportunities and the want of prosperous life. Another crucial factor that has helped the perpetration of human trafficking, it is the idealistic view of the western world and the wealthier countries women are easily lured by the promise to go there to work only to end up in brothels as prostitutes. (62)
This trafficking of human beings has become such a complex problem because it is conducted in various ways. In Thailand, women are exploited as workers in sweatshops they are used to beg in streets for money or they are exploited sexually in brothels (Beeks and Amir, 2006, p.61)
The Prevalence of Human Trafficking in Thailand
Besides being the country where human trafficking is a noted criminal mainstay, Thailand has eventually become the origin, transit and destination for women being trafficked from across the world. Many women who are Thailand nationals are trafficked to Europe, Australia, North America and Japan for the sole purpose of sex exploitation through debt bondage (Beeks and Amir, 2006).
Previously, the trafficking of women within borders was identified as the major problem. But since the economy of the country began to rely on the steady supply of exploitable labor from across borders, the cases of intra-border trafficking have reduced significantly. Currently, people from countries such as Cambodia, Lao, Burma and China are trafficked into Thailand, where they stay to either work in sweat shops, brothels, farms andor fisheries or they are further trafficked to other countries such as Malaysia (Beeks and Amir, 2006, p.143)
This illicit trade has flourished in Thailand for a number of reasons. For one, the officials in Thailand who have the onus of combating the crime have been complicit in either committing it or not taking decisive actions against its perpetrators. Besides, some government officials have been involved in human trafficking these officials are mostly in the low levels of the law enforcement force and those of the immigration department (Beeks and Amir, 2006, p.143)
However, these lower tier officials are not the only ones to blame for the prevalence of human trafficking in Thailand there are senior Thailand public official, especially from the political class, the police and the military who have been identified as harboring commercial interests in the brothels and sweatshops, where many victims of human trafficking toil and moil for their exploiters (Beeks and Amir, 2006, p.143)
This however, does not mean that the business of trafficking of women in and through Thailand is a quite sophisticated process to the contrary, it basically involves some loosely connected networks of criminal gangs. It is these very criminals who make collaboration with other such like criminals across borders to facilitate the trafficking of people outside Thailand their networks therefore, are of a global nature (Beeks and Amir, 2006, p.143)
The Challenge of Combating Human Trafficking in Thailand
Since human trafficking is a multifaceted problem, the quest by the Thai government to curb the crime has been met with equally insurmountable hurdles. The Thai government has mostly concentrated its efforts on enacting legal structures that can help in deterring traffickers from conducting the business, though this has proved to be of little, if any, constructive result.
Historically, human trafficking in Thailand was first recorded back in 1984, when five girls who had been trafficked from the north of the country were found chained onto a steel window bars and burnt to death after the brothel they were in caught fire. Ever since then, Thailand has been battling with the problem of human trafficking, thereby amassing a wealth of experience on this crime more than any other nations in the world (Beeks and Amir, 2006, p.144)
Subsequently, Thailand enacted a number of legislations aimed at containing the crime from being carried out within and thorough its borders. One such law was passed later in 1992 and was then subsequently amended in 1997. Then in the late 2005, a new law, crafted along the provisions of the Trafficking Protocol was passed in Thailand to combat human trafficking (Beeks and Amir, 2006, p.144)
Far from that, Thailand has also used a network of laws whose provisions are related to those statutes that fight against human trafficking. These include such laws whose aims are to combat prostitution, money laundering and also those laws that address the rights and liberties of immigrants and workers (Beeks and Amir, 2006, p.144)
When it comes to the enforcement of these laws Thailand has made some progress in regards to the investigations and prosecution of traffickers. Beeks and Amir (2006) state the fact that whereas the prosecution of the offenders has been quite sporadic, they have nonetheless taken place and there is a marked in better prepared cases making it into the court. Arguably, more than any other country in Southeast Asia, Thailand has demonstrated conviction in the identification and response to the vulnerability of the victims of human trafficking, including those that are brought to those that are brought to the criminal justice process (Beeks and Amir, 2006, p.144)
So far, Thailand boasts of a rudimentary system, which helps in identifying victims of trafficking from the numerous illegal migrants, most of whom are undocumented. And even though there still exists some significant gaps and weaknesses, this system ensures that at least a good number of victims of human trafficking within Thailand receive immediate support and assistance in repatriation (Beeks and Amir, 2006, p.144)
In comparison to the magnitude of the problem of human trafficking in Thailand, this progress is invariably modest. As Kara (2009) notes the Royal Thai Police faces challenge that are typical of such law enforcement units created by countries to investigate and prosecute anti-trafficking crimes. Like other such units, the Royal Thai Police is of a small size in the human resource and it is also under funded. This frustrates the efforts of the officers in the unit in the sense that even though they are committed to fight trafficking, slavery and other related crimes they dont have the funds to train their officers, purchase arms, uniforms and even conduct comprehensive investigations. As a result, foreign assistance has become the main source of their funding and such means have proved inadequate in funding the Royal Thai police. (39)
Far from that, Royal Thai Police unit doesnt have the authority to conduct an investigation or raid in a sex-slave establishment its only allowed to respond to complaints from communities or victims. And the complaints are hard to come by because victims are often intimidated by traffickers. There are also no witness protection laws to protect the victims who would wish to volunteer information about the trade. Consequently, less than ten percent of the victims have so far testified against their oppressors (Kara, 2009, p. 39).
Beeks and Amir (2006) are of the argument that the evaluation of the Thailand criminal justice response to human trafficking is complicated due to the fact that it is a country of origin, transits and destination. For instance, the manner in which Thailand handles the trafficking of its citizens across borders is quite different from the way it responds to trafficking and exploitation of foreigners in the country. The Thailand authorities rarely conduct or even commence investigations in case of human trafficking from Thailand. It is typical of Thailand police to respond to request for information and assistance from foreign authorities that are investigating of trafficking of Thailand citizens into their own countries. (147)
Normally trafficking within and into Thailand is hardly investigated or prosecuted in any systematic or particularly effective way. The Royal Thai Police, whose main mandate is to deal with human trafficking cases, only act in response to a particular complaint and the speed and depth of its investigation depend on the avenue through which the complaint is presented. For instance, the cases which are brought to open by the media or by local and international non-governmental organizations are addressed with urgency and effectively. The high level of complicity by the public sector and the general mistrust of Thai police, have made many a victims not to register their complaints, mostly if the victims are foreigners, illegal immigrants andor have faced exploitation in the sex industry (Beeks and Amir, 2006, p.147)
Above all, the manner in which convicted traffickers are penalized leaves much to be desired about the provisions in the law. Kara (2009) argues that for human trafficking crimes to become riskier there must be a corresponding measurable risk that is economically detrimental to whoever commits that particular crime. If anything, sex slavery is a crime with enormous economic returns a criminal trade in which a slave owner exploits hisher slave in order to bring to the minimum the cost of labor and to maximize the returns. But in Thailand there is no financial penalty for persons who have are convicted for sex trafficking offense. The jail term is always a part of any such conviction but in most cases the term does not last more than a few years. (40)
On another front, there has been there has been stunted cooperation and coordination between the organizations that work on human trafficking in Thailand. The responsibilities to achieve this have been allocated between government agencies and the agencies and non-governmental organizations, which have failed to successfully implement the duties expected of them (Beeks and Amir, 2006, p.144).
Impact of Globalization on Human Trafficking in Thailand
Undoubtedly, globalization has greatly impacted human trafficking in Thailand in number of ways. One of them is that it has fanned the criminal trade by facilitating the transit of people into and through Thailand. Sanders, ONeill and Pitcher (2009), demonstrate the fact that migration today is as a result of some powerful market forces that are inextricably connected with globalization, capital market forces and the mainstreaming of the sex industry (163).
Oishi (2005) further adds that the crime of human trafficking has been fed by the migration of people from one country to another. Asia is specifically being affected by this changing global landscape (184). It should be noted that through globalization, communication has been made easier and so it is the access to the knowledge about the available markets of trafficked women. Since Thailand is a busy transit point, globalization has speeded up its efficiency in the criminal trade.
Secondly, globalization has brought a radical twist on the question of prostitution an issue that is central in human trafficking. ONeill (2001) argues that there are currently two major perspectives on prostitution. One of which is that women who work as prostitutes are normally exploited by the people (men) who organize and manage the industry. Moreover, prostitution and the wider sex industry are structured in such a manner that they establish prostitution as a patriarchal institution, which affects the lives of women and gendered relations. The second perspective is that in the present society, many women have freely chosen prostitution as a form of work and the rights and liberties of the women working in the sex industry need to be respected and upheld just like those of any other workers and this include the freedom from fear, exploitation and violence in the course of their work. (16)
The latter conceptualization, as Penttinen, (2008)observes, mainly refers to the absence of alternatives to sex work, which causes women to resort to prostitution as the most profitable option rather than being directly coerced or tricked into prostitution by third parties such as pimps, boyfriends or criminal networks. The debate rather involves the discussions whether a prostitute is merely selling herself or her sex. The former standpoint reflects a patriarchal ideology that associates women identity with her sex and that considers virginity and chastity as womans highest value (15).
These ideological shifts are a justification to prostitution by women who find themselves in the web of human trafficking and decide to remain victims. This mindset mean that an increasing number of molested victims will opt not to come out in the light with their testimonies and to the law enforcement force of a country like Thailand, where the crime is rife, this doesnt bode well for its future.
Thirdly, globalization had also seen to the cooperation on countries in Asia in the fight against human trafficking. Given that human trafficking is a vice that has got an extensive global network, Thailand cannot successfully combat it unilaterally she needs the support of the international community.
As Oishi (2005) reveals, for quite some time, there was no regional cooperation or discussions that concerned the protection of migrant workers in Asia. But in recent years, many countries in the region have realized the need to cooperate on the issue of migration largely due to the increase in cases of trafficking of both women and children. For instance, the Manila Process, which was initiated by seventeen countries within the region in 1996, has provided a regular forum for migration authorities to share crucial information on the trends and policy measures that concern irregular migration and human trafficking (184). This cooperation has been made possible by the demand of globalization that countries need to share the battle front in combating the challenges that face them.
The Thai government has also demonstrated conviction in cooperating with its regional neighbors to stump out human trafficking Beeks and Amir (2006) state that Thailand is now playing an important role in fighting human trafficking abroad. Its government is considered a regional policy leader on the issue of trafficking. It has managed to reach an agreement the governments of Lao and Cambodia on the issue of identification and repatriation of victims of the vice. (144)
Thailand also helped set into motion the COMMIT process, a high-level ministerial process that consisted of all the six countries of the Greater Mekong Sub-region a process that resulted into the adoption of a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Apart from that, Thailand has been instrumental in promoting and coordinating cooperation between the law enforcement agencies within the sub-region. And the Thailand government has at least signed the Organized Crime Convention and Trafficking Protocol, though it is yet to ratify it. Besides, Thailand is a party to a number of key international human rights instruments, for instance the Women Convention, the International Labor Law (ILO) Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labor and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Beeks and Amir, 2006, p144).
Additionally, it is through globalization that the Asian countries managed to come up with the Asia Pacific Consultation (APC), which is sponsored by both the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UNHCR, is another forum that helps the Asian and Pacific countries to make consultations on matters regarding the movement of populations in the region, including those of immigrants, refugees and the internally displaced people (Oishi, 2005, p.184). Such collaboration means that Thailand gained the much needed partnership, which is crucial in its efforts to fight against human trafficking.
Conclusion
The problem of human trafficking is chronic in Thailand and as elaborated herein, the country cannot succeed to fix the problem without the help from international players. The major factor that exacerbates this problem is globalization, which enables the communication and movements of people across borders. The situation is apparently getting bleaker with governments concentrating resources in fighting other forms of crimes, despite ratifying various treaties that abhor human trafficking.
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