{"id":2232,"date":"2016-10-14T17:49:06","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T17:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thaianti-humantraffickingaction.org\/Home\/?p=2232"},"modified":"2016-10-14T18:08:29","modified_gmt":"2016-10-14T18:08:29","slug":"report-from-thailand-part-3-it-takes-a-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thaianti-humantraffickingaction.org\/Home\/2016\/10\/14\/report-from-thailand-part-3-it-takes-a-village\/","title":{"rendered":"Report from Thailand, Part 3: It Takes a Village"},"content":{"rendered":"

Federal Bureau of Investigation Press Release on 6 October 2016,<\/p>\n

On a hot afternoon near the seaside resort town of Pattaya\u2014known as one of the world\u2019s leading sex tourism destinations\u2014preteen and teenage boys and girls lounge on the tile floor in a large common room watching a video.<\/p>\n

To an uninformed visitor, this might be a day camp or community center. In fact, it is the Haven Children’s Home, and the nearly 30 youngsters living at the shelter are all victims of appalling crimes\u2014abandonment, physical abuse, forced labor, sex trafficking.<\/p>\n

In most cases, the needs of these children continue long after police arrest those who abused them. The shelter represents one small piece of a larger victim services network that includes law enforcement, the court system, social workers, medical personnel, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provide funding for places like Haven Children\u2019s Home.<\/p>\n

Through its overseas office in Bangkok, the FBI works with all these groups to further investigations and to help get justice for young victims. Such a multidisciplinary approach\u2014working in tandem with an integrated team of providers\u2014has proven effective in the U.S. and is increasingly being applied in Thailand. For Sudjai Nakhpian, who runs the Haven Children\u2019s Home and has devoted her career to improving the lives of child victims, the concept is a simple one: \u201cWe have to help the children,\u201d she said, \u201cbecause the children cannot help themselves. We have to work together.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sudjai Nakhpian runs the Haven Children\u2019s Home in Pattaya, Thailand, a resort town with a reputation as one of the world\u2019s leading sex tourism destinations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Thai and migrant children are typically placed at the shelter by the courts. They can range in age from toddlers to teens and can stay as little as a few months or as long as a decade or more. Haven Children\u2019s Home is funded by A21, an independent, global non-profit whose mission is to end human trafficking.<\/p>\n

\u201cSoutheast Asia has one of the highest rates of child trafficking in the world, and, unfortunately, poverty and lack of education makes that possible,\u201d said Malina Enlund, A21\u2019s Asia director. \u201cThe scope of the problem is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thailand is one of the wealthiest and most developed countries in the region and attracts destitute migrant families from less developed countries such as Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar. \u201cAnd of course, that leads to exploitation,\u201d said Enlund, who has worked in Thailand on behalf of trafficking victims for the past eight years.<\/p>\n

Exploitation can take the form of children being prostituted or made to work for cheap wages under deplorable conditions. Some migrant parents are so desperate to feed their families that they rent or sell a child to traffickers who send the youngsters out on the street to beg or to work in the sex trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are talking about thousands of children,\u201d Enlund said, and in the case of migrants who have no documentation, they are extremely difficult to help because they are essentially unknown. \u201cIf they are trafficked from Cambodia or Myanmar and have no papers,\u201d she said, \u201cwe are basically looking for children that don\u2019t exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

[youtube]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zdRoZZrhKYA[\/youtube]<\/p>\n

Malina Enlund, Asia director of A21, talks about the challenges posed by child sex trafficking in Thailand and working together with other NGOs, law enforcement agencies, and the Royal Thai Police.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thai children, many who live on the street, are also targeted by traffickers and pedophiles from the U.S. and other Western nations. \u201cRight now, Pattaya has one of the largest number of pedophiles anywhere in the world living outside their home countries,\u201d Enlund said. And they are not only having sex with children, they are producing child pornography and posting it on the Internet.<\/p>\n

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Internet forums for pedophiles and pornographers on the so-called Dark Net are expansive and growing, she said, explaining that pedophiles routinely share information online about how to acquire children in Thailand. \u201cWith the Internet, we are living in a global community,\u201d Enlund said. Pedophiles anywhere are now \u201cfive clicks away from finding a child to abuse. Child sex tourism is growing,\u201d she added. \u201cThe demand for children is growing, and it\u2019s being fueled by technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The presence of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and other U.S. law enforcement agencies in Thailand has helped in the fight against child trafficking, Enlund believes. \u201cThe U.S. government is the only government I have seen that provides that amount of help to assist children on the ground\u2014and you not only support looking for perpetrators who are American, you also support child sex tourism victims, and that is the only agency that I know of that does that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thai police are trying to do the right thing regarding trafficking investigations and assisting victims, she said, \u201cbut I don\u2019t think they are funded enough and I don\u2019t think they are staffed enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the Haven Children\u2019s Home, Enlund said, \u201cit is a place where children learn to become whole again. Once they know their boundaries and feel like they are protected within those boundaries, they can thrive and go to school and have a normal life. It\u2019s our hope that we can find families for these kids at some point,\u201d she added. \u201cEvery child deserves a family.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Trafficking in Thailand: Signs of Progress<\/strong><\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of State\u2019s annual\u00a0Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report<\/a>\u00a0is said to be the world\u2019s most comprehensive resource regarding anti-human trafficking efforts. The 2016 report states that while \u201csex trafficking remains a significant problem in Thailand\u2019s extensive commercial sex industry,\u201d the country is making \u201csignificant\u201d progress to deal with its trafficking issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThailand is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking,\u201d the report said. \u201cThai victims of trafficking and some of the estimated three to four million migrant workers in Thailand are forced, coerced, or defrauded into labor or sex trafficking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The TIP report ranks countries in three tiers according to the seriousness of trafficking offenses and the extent to which governments are addressing the problem. In 2014 and 2015, the report ranked Thailand in the third tier, among the world\u2019s worst offenders. This year\u2019s report marks an improvement, placing the country on the Tier 2 Watch List, noting that while Thailand has \u201csevere forms of trafficking,\u201d it is making \u201csignificant efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the TIP report\u2019s recommendations for Thailand:<\/p>\n