Burmese children are often exploited in Thailand as cheap or free
sources of labor by unscrupulous traffickers and businessmen. (Photo:
Reuters)
MAE SOT—Aung Khine was 11 years old when his father passed away. His
father had worked as a carpenter to provide for his mother and two
little sisters. Now without their father’s support, the family was
facing serious problems
.
At the same time, a friend of the family returned from Mae Sot where he had been working in a factory. The friend had saved up enough money to repair his home’s broken roof and provide good food.
“My mother didn’t want me to go, but we had no choice,” Aung Khine told The Irrawaddy.
“We live in a really poor area in Mon State and at the time we were struggling to eat more than once a day,” he said.
In the local town, he says it wasn’t hard to find a broker—or carrier as the Burmese call them—who would take him to Thailand. Aung Khine says a middle-aged Mon man at the local market promised a safe trip to Thailand and a guaranteed job at the end.
In return for his services Aung Khine had to pay the man 95,000 [US $95], a fee they could not afford. It was fine though, the broker said, he could pay him back slowly when he started working.
“At the time I was so excited. I always heard Thailand was a great country and expected I would find a great life and a job to help my poor family,” said Aung Khine.
He was placed on a bus with a group of Burmese children and they made their way with the broker to the Thai-Burmese border. They waited till night and then sneaked across the river on small boats.
Aung Khine said he remembers two Thai men entering the dark room where the children were huddled and handing over money to the Burmese broker. “The last thing the carrier said to me was to make sure I do what the men tell me.”
Almost immediately Aung Khine was taken to a factory outside of Mae Sot where he was kept in prison-like conditions.
“We were never allowed out in six months. We could only go into the small garden behind the living quarters,” Aung Khine said. “The owner beat us and never paid us for our work. He said he paid for our travel costs so we had to work to pay him back.”
When the Thai owner had finished his order, the children were sold on to another factory where they lived in similar conditions. Two months in, the kids couldn’t take it any more, and they made a plan to escape in the night. They succeeded.
Aung Khine’s case is very similar to that of the thousands of other Burmese children and adults who head to Mae Sot with dreams of better lives, only to be trafficked into exploitative and slave-like conditions.
According to Moe Swe, the Mae Sot-based director of Yaung Ci Oo Workers Association, the lack of protection for Burmese migrant workers has resulted in an ever-growing group of vulnerable people.
“There is a lack of protection for migrant workers and the system for them to register is still weak,” he told The Irrawaddy. “As a result, many migrants come to Mae Sot illegally, which makes it easy for traffickers and employers to exploit them.”
As an increasing number of Burmese flee economic woes and instability in eastern Burma, a growing number of traffickers are arriving in Mae Sot to prey on the vulnerable.
“We are definitely seeing an increase in the amount of trafficking and traffickers in and around Mae Sot,” says Khun Mink, the coordinator of the Mae Sot branch of the Thai NGO, Foundation for Women (FFW).
The NGO has been running for more than 30 years and has dealt with hundreds if not thousands of human trafficking cases. Seeing a growing problem in Mae Sot, the NGO recently decided to set up an office on the border to deal with the problem.
“Before, we were based in Bangkok and worked hard to reduce trafficking in the region, but we felt we had to come up here urgently – Mae Sot is the first step for most trafficking in the region,” she said.
Since FFW opened its Centre for Trafficked Women and Children in Mae Sot the group has seen a steady flow of victims come in and out of their shelter—victims who had not only been trafficked around Mae Sot, but ended up further afield.
According to Sophia Naing who runs the FFW shelter, a lack of education in the communities is the biggest problem.
“In order to prevent trafficking from increasing any further, there needs to be a dramatic rise in anti-trafficking education provided to the communities by NGOs and governments,” she told The Irrawaddy while attending to several infants.
“So many poor families are happy to send their children off to work in Thailand because they don’t know the risks and dangers of trafficking—if we can increase awareness then families will be more careful about brokers who prey on the poor inside Burma,” she said.
.
At the same time, a friend of the family returned from Mae Sot where he had been working in a factory. The friend had saved up enough money to repair his home’s broken roof and provide good food.
“My mother didn’t want me to go, but we had no choice,” Aung Khine told The Irrawaddy.
“We live in a really poor area in Mon State and at the time we were struggling to eat more than once a day,” he said.
In the local town, he says it wasn’t hard to find a broker—or carrier as the Burmese call them—who would take him to Thailand. Aung Khine says a middle-aged Mon man at the local market promised a safe trip to Thailand and a guaranteed job at the end.
In return for his services Aung Khine had to pay the man 95,000 [US $95], a fee they could not afford. It was fine though, the broker said, he could pay him back slowly when he started working.
“At the time I was so excited. I always heard Thailand was a great country and expected I would find a great life and a job to help my poor family,” said Aung Khine.
He was placed on a bus with a group of Burmese children and they made their way with the broker to the Thai-Burmese border. They waited till night and then sneaked across the river on small boats.
Aung Khine said he remembers two Thai men entering the dark room where the children were huddled and handing over money to the Burmese broker. “The last thing the carrier said to me was to make sure I do what the men tell me.”
Almost immediately Aung Khine was taken to a factory outside of Mae Sot where he was kept in prison-like conditions.
“We were never allowed out in six months. We could only go into the small garden behind the living quarters,” Aung Khine said. “The owner beat us and never paid us for our work. He said he paid for our travel costs so we had to work to pay him back.”
When the Thai owner had finished his order, the children were sold on to another factory where they lived in similar conditions. Two months in, the kids couldn’t take it any more, and they made a plan to escape in the night. They succeeded.
Aung Khine’s case is very similar to that of the thousands of other Burmese children and adults who head to Mae Sot with dreams of better lives, only to be trafficked into exploitative and slave-like conditions.
According to Moe Swe, the Mae Sot-based director of Yaung Ci Oo Workers Association, the lack of protection for Burmese migrant workers has resulted in an ever-growing group of vulnerable people.
“There is a lack of protection for migrant workers and the system for them to register is still weak,” he told The Irrawaddy. “As a result, many migrants come to Mae Sot illegally, which makes it easy for traffickers and employers to exploit them.”
As an increasing number of Burmese flee economic woes and instability in eastern Burma, a growing number of traffickers are arriving in Mae Sot to prey on the vulnerable.
“We are definitely seeing an increase in the amount of trafficking and traffickers in and around Mae Sot,” says Khun Mink, the coordinator of the Mae Sot branch of the Thai NGO, Foundation for Women (FFW).
The NGO has been running for more than 30 years and has dealt with hundreds if not thousands of human trafficking cases. Seeing a growing problem in Mae Sot, the NGO recently decided to set up an office on the border to deal with the problem.
“Before, we were based in Bangkok and worked hard to reduce trafficking in the region, but we felt we had to come up here urgently – Mae Sot is the first step for most trafficking in the region,” she said.
Since FFW opened its Centre for Trafficked Women and Children in Mae Sot the group has seen a steady flow of victims come in and out of their shelter—victims who had not only been trafficked around Mae Sot, but ended up further afield.
According to Sophia Naing who runs the FFW shelter, a lack of education in the communities is the biggest problem.
“In order to prevent trafficking from increasing any further, there needs to be a dramatic rise in anti-trafficking education provided to the communities by NGOs and governments,” she told The Irrawaddy while attending to several infants.
“So many poor families are happy to send their children off to work in Thailand because they don’t know the risks and dangers of trafficking—if we can increase awareness then families will be more careful about brokers who prey on the poor inside Burma,” she said.
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