Burma-Thailand Relations and Muslim Immigrants

Human trafficking has been a controversial issue for many years. There are different types of trafficking, which helps makes it a widely diverse issue. In Thailand, traffickers rely on the poor desperate people of other countries as well as their own to fulfill their needs financially, physically, and emotionally. Thailand has various reasons why they use human trafficking; sex exploitation, forced labor, and obtaining their organs for an organ transplant. Sex exploitation has been used by mainly men for a long time. They choose both women and children to violate, sometimes even men. The prettier the woman is the more she is worth. All men, woman, and children could be forced into labor. This varies from what the owner wants from them. People can also choose to go and work for them because they think this is their only way of making money, but they usually do not see much of it. Finally, others purchase them just for their organs. There are very long waiting lists on some organs, by the time one comes about the person in need of the organ has already passed away. There are a number of steps and reasons that are involved in human trafficking. With all of these issues of; sex exploitations, and forced labor, and organ trafficking, the trafficked can become physically and mentally injured.

One of the world's most persecuted group of people in this world are the Rohingya they are a muslim group that haven't found a place to seattle and live there lives in peace.Can you imagine your life you had to be constantly running for your life and even have to take chances with your life, That is a everyday experience for the Rohingya.

Women and children who are being sexually exploited are often found in the urban areas of Thailand, but even rural areas have a share of commercial sex workers (Lau, June 2008). The Thai society is extremely male dominated as men are considered superior to women and hold the government and societal power (Vejar & Quach, May 2013). Foreign investors have a great deal of power in Thailand as the country has become more dependent tourism and manufacturing rather than the traditional small farm economy (Geary & Meyer, June 1993).

The Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women (GAATW) , is based out of Thailand. In 2003, Thailand enforced a law which focused on child sexual labor, and created an anti-corruption team to investigate reports of government officials involved in human trafficking . However, these laws did not clearly define what trafficking was or the appropriate punishment for the rimes committed. More recently however, the Thai government passed its anti-trafficking law, the Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act , which was enforced in 2007. What this law entails which previous legislation did not have was the, public recognition of sexual slavery, and the inclusion of male victims. In addition the penalties for infringing upon this law is much harsher than ever

The Red Cross relocated Nguyen’s family into a Thai military encampment situated on the Thailand-Cambodia boundary, in a region named Aranyaprathet, as there were no official refugee camps, there. Nguyen, in her book, describes her Mother’s experience, when she “heard the grotesque, wild and violent sounds of random beatings” and that “she tried hard not to be sick each time, she heard human flesh being pounded” (Nguyen, 2015). There were “men and women who worked with Vietnamese refugees in transit camps, in Southeast Asia [Thailand], beginning in the late 1970’s” (Vu & Satzewich, 2016). The need for more workers, in Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries, are obvious because “some French speaking Vietnamese passed small notes about fear and rapes” (Nguyen, 2015). All these things contributed to increase the tension and fear

Similar to Africa, the main causes of human trafficking in Asia is poverty. Other factors such as the want of upward mobility or the need of money for their families contribute to this. One of biggest suppliers of sex slaves is Thailand. Not only are sex slaves more exposed to HIV/ AIDS due to unsafe sex, they often will be forcefully injected with drugs to increase performance. The victims may even choose

Human trafficking is still lingering in South-East Asia as of today, and we do not expect to leave any time soon in the near future. The reality is that South-East Asian countries are mainly “affected by domestic trafficking or trafficking from the neighboring countries” (UNODC, 2014). There is an approximate “12 to 27 million people enslaved and exploited by human trafficking”, which this crime network brings in approximately “$30 billion dollars annually” (Collins, 2014). It is detected that today we see that (1) South-East Asia is still the origin area for victims of human trafficking around the world, (2) the vast majority of victims are females (either adults or underage girls) and children, (3) what’s surprising is that forced labor is well known among victims than sex exploitation, and (4) offenders are usually within the region (UNODC, 2014).

Anyone who is subject to violence and persecution should have the right to seek protection in another country. Many Rohingya have fled their homes due to religious conflicts in Myanmar by the Buddhists militants, terrorizing, burning and bulldozing the homes of the Muslim minority. These Rohingya have migrated to Thailand, Malaysia but mostly Bangladesh to seek protection in a new country. This migration in the nation state has its positive effects as the people in danger have the chance to escape and start their own life somewhere else, away from burning villages and ignited homes. They get the opportunity to find a safe new neighborhood and look for work elsewhere. Although the negatives do out way the positives, leaving a significant number of growing refugees in the world especially off the coast of Indonesia. These refugees are being kept in overcrowding refugee camps that are causing an issue that is affecting more than just people disturbed in the Rohingya crisis. Everyday there are crowds of homeless people swamping countries with no place for them to go. The military has planted landmines along the Bangladesh border to prevent the Rohingya from returning.

These refugees have face severe trauma, such as; forced labor, forced relocation, lost property, and killing of family members. A survey reported back that out of the biggest trauma events they’ve experienced, 80% have faced hiding in the jungle. According to an article in the Social Science and Medicine journal, of these relocated refugees, 42% experience depression. To put it into perspective, the United State’s rate of depression is 7-10%. Within the camps, the residents were also asked to rank their quality of life within the camp. 27% rated it is miserable or very miserable and 60% rated it as neither pleasant nor not pleasant. One organization helping these families is the International Rescue Committee. According to rescue.org, their organization seeks to address the following items: support to health, institution building, education, and leadership in policy dialogue; or better known as, SHIELD. They focus on preventing avian influenza among the borders by preparing for an outbreak and bringing public awareness of the disease. They provide many different kinds of health care to the refugees, including, reproductive and child health care, primary health care, and eye care. This organization is doing wonderful things for the Burmese population here and

In today’s society, tragically enough, slavery exists. Being the third largest criminal activity and generating over 32 million dollars annually, sex trafficking has become a worldwide business of enslaving people for money and self-gratification. Sex trafficking, the illegal business of commercial sex induced by force or fraud, is seen to be one of the major examples of modern slavery. This brutal act occurs in very vulnerable areas including Southeast Asia, where there are people motivated to seek better conditions and escape poverty. People are also forced into sex trafficking, due to political conditions, war, and cultural practices. These young citizens are trafficked through kidnappings, sales of children, false marriages, and false

Throughout history human trafficking has been a plague upon the human race. Human trafficking is the unlawful migration of people to be used for forced labor or sexual exploitation, similar to slavery. It is believed that Thailand is the main source of human trafficking. This is an issue that affects everyone because innocent lives are endangered as well as Thailand’s neighboring countries, which are at the highest risk. This is a violation of human rights due to the fact it is dehumanizing to use a person as an object for personal gain and ignore their freedom of speech even if it is occurring outside of the United States.

According to an article Human Trafficking under the Veil of Sex Tourism in Thailand - Reactions of the EU by Gugić, Zrinka, human trafficking is defined as the recruitment, or transportation of people, by threatening and forcing them to surrender for the purpose of exploitation (356). These vulnerable people are treated as goods to be bought or sold, and exchanged over money. Moreover, they have no freedom of speech or right of choice since they are captivated by their owners. The numbers of trafficked people are increasing rapidly including mostly women and children who are forced into criminal activities such as prostitution, terrorism, and drug abuse. In addition to this, some are even coerced to slavery and sale of their organs. According to an article, “Trafficking in persons and development” by Gergana Danailova-Trainor and Frank Laczko, poverty is the root cause that needs to be addressed in order to prevent human trafficking (8). Illiterate people in the villages, who are trapped in vicious cycle of poverty, often sell their children for a source of income. It is extremely common in countries like Thailand, India, and Sri Lanka. In Thailand many of the girls are trafficked from their villages and forced to sex exploitation; sex industry in Thailand has a major contribution to the country’s gross domestic product. All of this contributes to human exploitation which

government to search for the traffickers in Asia by providing courses that civilians can take to know what to do in case they are ever get involved in human trafficking. Also, sending volunteers over to Asia to spread the awareness of human trafficking and the U.S. involvement would help to decrease the amount of men, women, and children being taken. There are human trafficking hotlines in Asia to report and stop human trafficking. Again, these are not widely known and therefore can not always do their jobs. One of these places or ‘hotlines’ is the ZOE. According to “Human Trafficking Hotline” on gozoe.org (n.d.) “ZOE receives over 200 calls a year on its human trafficking hotline. ZOE’s Child Rescue (ZCR) department members are Thai citizens who speak a variety of languages (Thai, Karen, Burmese, etc.)” (para. 2). Even though they do collect on average 200 calls a year, that is only a speck to the thousands of people actually taken in Asia every year. By spreading awareness in ways such as annual conventions and advertising, people will become more aware of the existing problem. By giving the people of Asia the knowledge and the ability to prevent such an attack, the course of human trafficking will presumably

The state of social and economic disarray that plagues villages surrounding Thailand makes them easy prey for trafficking. According to Toward Freedom, and organization dedicated to advancement of human rights, peace, justice, enlightenment, and freedom from oppression, “Brothel owners have networks of agents combing the villages for troubled families with daughters, making tempting offers of good jobs in the big cities and resort areas” (“Toward”). The most common scenario for troubled families is that they are in debt and are without proper paying jobs. Families are offered up to an entire year’s salary and are also told their children will be going to a better life. Many families know they can’t support their children and see this as their only option. The economic issue prevalent is not unique to Thailand. According to Asia Times, an organization designed to report on Asian political, economic and business

The Rohingya Muslims have tried many things to cope with these attacks, resulting in both good and bad outcomes. For most of the Rohingyas, they were either kicked