The Darker Side Of Bangkok 

"Thailand is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking.":330Thailand's relative prosperity attracts migrants from neighboring countries who flee conditions of poverty and, in the case of Burma, military repression. Significant illegal migration to Thailand presents traffickers with opportunities to coerce or defraud undocumented migrants into involuntary servitude or sexual exploitation. The Darker Side Of Bangkok

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Women and children are trafficked from Burma, Cambodia, Laos, the People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.), Vietnam, Russia and Uzbekistan for commercial sexual exploitation in Thailand. A number of women and girls from Burma, Cambodia and Vietnam are trafficked through Thailand’s southern border to Malaysia for sexual exploitation. Ethnic minorities such as northern hill tribe peoples who have not received legal residency or citizenship are at high risk for trafficking internally and abroad, including to Bahrain, Australia, South Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Hong Kong, Europe and the United States. Some Thai men who migrate for low-skilled contract work to Taiwan, South Korea, Israel, the United States and Gulf states are subjected to conditions of forced labor and debt bondage after arrival.

Following voluntary migration to Thailand, men, women, and children, primarily from Burma, are subjected to conditions of forced labor in agriculture, factories, construction, commercial fisheries and fish processing, domestic work and begging. Thai laborers working abroad in Taiwan, Malaysia, the United States and the Middle East often pay large recruitment fees prior to departure, creating a debt which in some cases may be unlawfully exploited to coerce them into very long terms of involuntary labor. Children from Burma, Laos and Cambodia are trafficked into forced begging and exploitative labor in Thailand.

Four key sectors of the Thai economy (fishing, construction, commercial agriculture and domestic work) rely heavily on undocumented Burmese migrants, including children, as cheap and exploitable laborers. The Government of Thailand does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it claims to be making efforts to do so. In November 2007, the Thai National Legislative Assembly passed a new comprehensive anti-trafficking law which the Thai government reported would take effect in June 2008. While there were no criminal prosecutions of forced labor cases during the reporting period, Thai authorities in March 2008 conducted a raid on a shrimp processing factory in Samut Sakhon province, rescuing 300 Burmese victims of forced labor. The Ministry of Labor subsequently released guidelines on how it will apply stronger measures to identified labor trafficking cases in the future. Nevertheless, the Thai government has yet to initiate prosecutions of the owners of a separate Samut Sakhon shrimp processing factory from which 800 Burmese men, women and children were rescued from conditions of involuntary servitude, including physical and psychological abuse and confinement, in September 2006. The factory remains in operation.

The US State Department's influential annual Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) for 2014 was released in June 2014. In it, Thailand was downgraded from Tier 2 to Tier 3 status. Tier 3 is reserved for those nations whose governments do not fully comply with minimum human trafficking abatement efforts and who are not making significant efforts to comply with those standards.:43 TIP 2014 provides numerous examples of egregious human trafficking violations, but cites no sources beyond noting that the report was prepared "...using information from U.S. embassies, government officials, non-governmental and international organizations, published reports, news articles, academic studies, research trips..., and information submitted to tipreport@state.gov":37 Thailand's government vigorously disputes the downgrade in ranking.

The 2015 edition of the Trafficking in Persons Report retains the Tier 3 designation of Thailand first assigned in the 2014 report. The 2015 report states, "The Government of Thailand does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, and is not making significant efforts to do so."
"Thailand's fishing industry is rife with trafficking and abuse". Many reports since 2000 have documented the forced labour of trafficked workers in the Thai fishing industry. Thousands of migrants have been forced to work on fishing boats with no contract or stable wages.

A detailed study of the motives, practices, and context surrounding the use of forced labour on Thai boats was published by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in 2011. Noturious Sex Trafficking in Thailand

In the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report, 2014 (TIP), the US government lowered Thailand's human trafficking ranking to "Tier 3", the lowest possible.:372 Trafficking in the Thai fishing industry figured significantly in the downgrade. Tier 3 nations are defined as those, "Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA's minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.":43 The government of Thailand vigorously opposed this ranking. The Darker Side Of Bangkok

Thailand's downgrade has focused the attention of human trafficking and environmental organizations on tracking Thailand's progress on the issue. In the view of some, little progress has been made. The Darker Side Of Bangkok

Big changes may be in the offing. In his Friday night "Returning Happiness to the Thai People" address of 27 March 2015 on national television, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha vowed to put an end to human trafficking in the Thai fishing industry "for once and for all". Prayut was quoted as saying, "If such abuses of fellow humans continue, I will instruct that they should not be allowed to do any business any longer in Thailand and they must be punished," Gen Prayut said. "Don’t...blame me for being cruel. How can you take advantage of other people? You’re incredibly rich and have dozens of boats. It is time to abide by the law." The Darker Side Of Bangkok

On the same day, Prayut ordered all fishing vessels to be equipped with GPS to prevent them from illegally operating in other countries' fishing zones. "Each vessel will have a GPS and be issued under one operator", he said. Prayut went on to say that if Thailand failed to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, other countries would no longer buy Thai seafood and that that could cost the nation more than 200 billion baht a year. The Darker Side Of Bangkok