VALE OF TIERS
>> It was a great trial. But rather than prime the pumps for a lift out of the basement, it actually illustrates why Thailand is stuck at that Tier 2 (Watch List) level on the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) list that obsesses the general prime minister and millions more including the media.
And we want to use another example from another part of life to show why. But first. It was just a couple of weeks ago, so you remember the shocking Krabi province home invasion that wound up with eight members of a family killed — no, executed. Three were girls, children. And you remember the police put their mind and matter and material to work and solved the case.
In other words, the dreadful, corrupt, position-buying, bribe-taking, drug-planting, 191-ignoring police can actually, really do the job. The reason no one trusts them and few like them is not because they are incompetent. It’s because they refuse to be competent. Back to human trafficking.
How we got to this place was that a month after the military regime arrived in office at gunpoint, the annual US TIP report, for the first time ever, tipped Thailand into the very lowest, worst-inthe-world Tier 3. It did not make second coming-sized headlines but it came amid proof of major trafficking and brutal treatment of migrants, many of them from next-door nations.
In early 2015, a very frustrated, angry general prime minister ordered something done about the literally savage abuse of migrants to Thailand. At the time, it was obvious enough that Stevie Wonder could see the problems. Not only was Thailand stuck at the very bottom of world reputation but people were actually dying in quite large numbers because of the barbarity and cruelty of a large conspiracy in the South.
He never has mentioned it. The media tiptoes carefully about it. But Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha knew back then that “his guy” Lt Gen Manas Kongpan was behind it. So, like national police chief Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda drove his force to solve the Krabi killings, Gen Prayut in 2015 figuratively seized his top men by the throat, shook them hard and told them to clean up the trafficking gangs in the South. Which they did.
Of course that didn’t get Thailand promoted on the TIP list. Here’s what the US side said: The government demonstrated significant efforts. The government continued to increase dedicated anti-trafficking resources. But “it did not aggressively prosecute and convict officials complicit in trafficking crimes”.
Even though 103 people were arrested and even though every big fish detained was given a heavy prison sentence, it took two years and two months just to finish one case.
But wait. It gets worse.
Here is Recommendation No.1 from Washington: “Proactively investigate and prosecute officials allegedly complicit in trafficking.”
Here is what happened in the next big trafficking case, days after that US report and advice about how to advance up the Vale of Tiers.
Dateline Saphan Kwai district, Bangkok. Ten months ago a respected NGO, Nvader, reported a case of human trafficking of migrant children, being held prisoner in two nightspots for prostitution on the premises.
A joint military-police team raided the joints and discovered — surprise! — migrant teenagers being held prisoner for prostitution on the premises.
Slam-dunk case. A certain highlight in next year’s TIP report, the one where Thailand is promoted to a heady tier.
Or maybe not. Police took over the case. A long investigation ensued. Last month the teens involved were finally called to tell police their stories. They all, every one of them, said they weren’t coerced at all. They aspired to be prostitutes, lifetime dream, to hear them tell it. The pimps did them a huge favour.
Also, they had no idea who ran the bars where they worked. They weren’t curious about them at all.
And a wondrous thing happened that is going to surprise the following percentage of readers: zero. Police reportedly told the owners and pimps, all of them, they were free to go.
We’ll just mention in passing the Mae Hong Son province scandal, allegedly involving provincial civil service effectively enslaving underage girls for purely sexual dominance and pleasure.
Arguably, then, it is not so much the US holding Thailand back from promotion to a higher tier on the TIP list.
Thailand is not achieving its own full potential on an issue it has declared a national priority.