2007 Trafficking in Persons Report - Center for Women Policy Studies

T O G O
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has further drawn financial and personnel resources
away from Thai law enforcement anti-trafficking
efforts.
In October, Thai police raided two karaoke bars
in the southern province of Narathiwat, rescuing
34 women and child victims comprised of Thai
hill tribe members and citizens of Vietnam, Laos,
and Cambodia. In March 2007, a criminal court
sentenced a senior military official to life imprisonment
for the detention and murder of a Burmese
domestic worker who was considered a trafficking
victim. The Government of Thailand reported 88
arrests in cases brought against traffickers in the
period from September 2005 through February
2007, involving a total of 100 victims. Corruption
is still sometimes a problem, with local police or
immigration officials protecting brothels, fishing
and sweatshop facilities from raids and occasionally
facilitating the movement of Burmese,
Cambodian, Lao, and P.R.C. women and children
into or through Thailand. No public officials or law
enforcement officials were arrested for traffickingrelated
crimes in 2006.
Protection
The Thai government continued to provide impressive
protection to foreign victims of sex trafficking
in Thailand and Thai citizens who have returned
to Thailand after facing labor or sex trafficking
conditions abroad. The government’s collaboration
with civil society organizations to protect victims of
sex trafficking remained impressive. However, male
victims of trafficking are not included in the victim
protection provisions of Thai law. Moreover, out
of a fund of 500 million baht (equivalent to $13
million) set up by the Thai government in 2005
to fund increased trafficking victim care, only 100
million baht has been authorized for expenditure.
The Thai government refers women and child
victims to one of six regional shelters run by the
government, where they receive psychological counseling,
food, board, and medical care. However,
none of these shelters is in the area of Thailand
north of Phitsanulok, where victims are referred to
separate, often high-quality facilities run by NGOs.
The government encourages female victim participation
in the investigation and prosecution of sex
trafficking crimes. The government does not provide
foreign victims with legal alternatives to their
removal to countries where they may face hardship
or retribution. Female victims of sex trafficking are
generally not jailed or deported; foreign victims of
labor trafficking and men may be deported as illegal
migrants. In the September 2006 labor trafficking
case, most Burmese male workers were deported
as illegal migrants, without interviewing them to
determine if they were victims, while 66 females
from the same factory were sent to a shelter for
trafficking victims. In 2006, the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs repatriated 380 women primarily trafficked
for sexual exploitation to Bahrain (256 victims),
Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, and Italy. In May
2006, the government repatriated to Thailand nine
Shan women who were not Thai citizens but who
had been trafficked to Malaysia in 2004; their repatriation
to Thailand was delayed due to their lack
of Thai or any other citizenship. The government
provided in-kind assistance in the form of technical
support, personnel, and facilities to NGOs active in
anti-trafficking. The government collaborates with
IOM to set up transit facilities, shelters, and referral
processes to improve victim protection. In 2006,
IOM returned 343 people to their home countries,
including 245 Laotians, 85 Cambodians, and 13
Burmese. The government’s National Trafficking
Action Plan for 2005-2007 identified $34.2 million
for trafficking-related project initiatives.
Prevention
The Thai government continued to support prevention
and public awareness activities on sex and
labor trafficking as well as sex tourism during the
year. The Thai government has begun outreach
programs to educate potential migrant workers
about working conditions in Thailand, and to
educate Thai workers about working conditions
and recruitment practices abroad. In cooperation
with the ILO, a migrant workers handbook was
published in Lao, Burmese, Khmer, and Thai to
advise migrant workers of their rights and avenues
of recourse. The Ministry of Labor conducts regular
seminars with all outgoing Thai workers to advise
them on restrictions on labor broker fees and regulations
governing foreign guest worker programs.
Thailand has not ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.
TOGO (Tier 2)
Togo is a source, transit, and destination country for
children and women trafficked for the purposes of
forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation.
Trafficking within the country is more prevalent than
transnational trafficking and the majority of victims
are children, primarily girls. Girls are trafficked
within Togo for forced labor as produce porters,
market vendors, maids, and for sexual exploitation.
Transnationally, Togolese girls are trafficked primarily
to Gabon, Benin, Nigeria, and Niger for domestic
servitude, forced labor, and sexual exploitation. Girls
are also trafficked to Togo from Benin, Nigeria, and
Ghana for domestic servitude and possibly for sexual
exploitation. Togolese boys are trafficked primarily
to Nigeria, Benin and Cote d’Ivoire for agricultural
labor. There have been reports of Togolese women
and girls trafficked to Lebanon and Saudi Arabia,
likely for domestic servitude and sexual exploitation.
Togolese women were also trafficked to France
and Germany for domestic servitude and sexual
exploitation.