Published on : Thursday, April 19, 2018
“Human trafficking and slavery are against the law in Thailand. Perpetrators will be severely punished,” it says, followed by a hotline number for people to report cases.
Starting right from the airports to the shopping malls, Thailand is constantly increasing campaigns targeting tourists in its latest effort to shun human trafficking from the country, as the officials are keen on improving international ratings.
Time after time, the Southeast Asian nation is ranked as one of the best tourist destinations in the world. According to the Government data, Thailand, in last year, welcomed a record 35 million visitors and predicted it to rise to 37.6 million this year.
However, in recent years, it has got the international arc light what rights groups describe as widespread human trafficking where women are forced into selling sex and fishermen trapped in conditions similar to modern slavery.
In 2017, the U.S. State Department left Thailand on a Tier 2 Watchlist – just on top of the lowest ranking of Tier 3 – in its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, explaining that enough measures are yet to be launched to tackle human smuggling and trafficking.
“Every effort is important,” Weerachon Sukhontapatipak, a Thai government spokesman told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Tags: Thailand