Trafficking
· Many people in Burma believe that Thailand provides not only refuge but also economic opportunities.
o This makes it relatively easy to traffic women across borders.
o These women are forced into sex work.
o Human rights watch has accused Thailand of being complicit to this practice.
§ Lack of enforcement
§ Many Thai police officers utilize the brothels
§ Brothel operators pay bribes to law enforcement, depending on number of women
· In many cases, women are approached by traffickers who promise them jobs in Thailand and offer cash to their families.
o After crossing the border, women are forced into sex work to “pay back” the intermediary who brought her over the border.
o Women are subject to 12 or 14 hour work days.
o Subject to rape, physical abuse, and illegal confinement
· Burmese women and girls are routinely picked up by police, detained without charge, and abused before being deported back to Burma
· Few women have had any formal education, let alone the knowledge to prevent the transfer of STDs or HIV.
o If these infected girls try to return home, they are often rejected.
o %50-%70 of women who return to Burma are HIV positive
o Due to the lack of domestic human rights organizations inside Burma, little is known about girl’s lives after they return
· Thai NGOs predict that over 20,000 Burmese women and girls are currently working in Thai brothels
o 10,000 new recruits per year
Abuse from Military Regime (“License to Rape”)
· In 2002, women’s rights networks began issuing reports of systematic rape of women by the military as a tool of counter-insurgency
o %25 of rapes result in death
o %61 were gang rapes
· Rape is an officially sanctioned “strategy of war” in Burma\
o 316 reported incidences in 5 years
o Hard to report numbers due to threats of death and torture
· Women are unable to do day to day work due to threat of assault from military
Thai Exploitation
· In addition to their complicity in the issue of human trafficking, Thailand has also been condemned by UNHCR for its detention of Burmese refugees in a “human zoo” on the border
o “Giraffe women” are a tourist attraction (Kayan)
o Thai government refuses to let them leave despite firm offers to resettle the women in New Zealand or Finland
