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Published: 7th October 2006
Pioneering schemes to tackle poverty in Thailand are helping cut sex and drugs trafficking to Bahrain and around the world, as GEOFFREY BEW discovered during a visit to the country.
SUSTAINABLE development projects in Thailand are helping curb the trafficking of women and children to Bahrain and other countries across the world, according to Thai officials.
King of Thailand Bhumibol Adulyadej, who celebrated his 60th anniversary this year, has instigated more than 2,000 projects during his reign.
They include schemes to improve education, environment, irrigation and rice cultivation.
…
Published: 7th October 2006
Pioneering schemes to tackle poverty in Thailand are helping cut sex and drugs trafficking to Bahrain and around the world, as GEOFFREY BEW discovered during a visit to the country.
SUSTAINABLE development projects in Thailand are helping curb the trafficking of women and children to Bahrain and other countries across the world, according to Thai officials.
King of Thailand Bhumibol Adulyadej, who celebrated his 60th anniversary this year, has instigated more than 2,000 projects during his reign.
They include schemes to improve education, environment, irrigation and rice cultivation.
They are aimed at helping people in the country’s poorest communities move out of poverty and towards self-sufficiency.
Officials say these have also had the effect of curbing the once flourishing drugs trade, by reducing people’s dependence on opium, and stopped women and children from falling into the trade of human trafficking.
Last month, Thai officials told the GDN that reports of parts of Adliya having been turned into a red light district by Thai sex workers, were only a small part of a much larger human trafficking problem facing Bahrain.
An embassy spokesman said the issue was systematic of relaxed visa regulations allowing poor women from Thailand and other countries to be lured to Bahrain with the promise of legitimate jobs, before being forced into prostitution.
Visa restrictions between Thailand and Bahrain were eased in 2003 as part of efforts to boost relations.
This means Thai nationals are able to visit Bahrain without a visa for up to two weeks, while Bahrainis can visit Thailand for up to 30 days.
However, the embassy says this has led to some people abusing the system.
No official figures are available but it is estimated there are around 3,000 Thais living in Bahrain, a third of whom are believed to be illegal residents.
Most are thought to have travelled to the country legally on tourist visas and then overstayed.
But Thai Ambassador to Bahrain Phithak Phrombubpha believes the king’s royal projects are having a positive impact.
While admitting that abuse related to the sex industry may never be eradicated, he says it has helped curb illegal activity such as the trafficking of women and children.
“When people have a better condition of living, they do not go out of Thailand for work,” he told the GDN.
“Now people in a village have schools to study in, food to eat and basic conditions of living.
“They feel happy that they have everything they need.”
He says recruiters, who target the most vulnerable people, are part of the problem.
“People tell them that (working abroad) is a heaven and you can find a job easily and will be paid very well,” he said.
“But the people who invest money (to bring Thai women to Bahrain) sometimes force them to do illegal things.
“Nobody can ever intend to go into prostitution, we declare them victims.”
Among the king’s initiatives is the Doi Tung Development Project in northern Thailand, inaugurated by Princess Srinagrindara in 1988.
It aimed to alleviate rural poverty and the hardship experienced by inhabitants of harsh mountainous terrain and introduced agricultural schemes to replace the cultivation of opium as an economic crop.
Secretary-general of the Mae Fah Luang Foundation and chairman of the Doi Tung Development Project in Thailand Disnadda Diskul says it has helped tackle some of the social issues prevalent in the area such as drug addiction and prostitution, which can lead to trafficking.
“They had never seen a car before,” he said of the poverty facing people in the area before the project began.
“They never bought anything; they just picked food to eat.
“They went to sell their body to the sex industry.
“Why? Because they saw their father and mother were in poverty and their brothers and sisters having nothing
to eat.
“Somebody told them if you go into the sex industry, you would get the money to help them.”
Mr Diskul says desperation can lead people to do things they would never normally dream of.
“Mothers also took their daughters to sell them at prostitution houses,” he said.
“If they could not sell themselves, they sold their daughter.
“They sacrificed one life to save the whole family.
“It is hard for Westerners to understand.
“I understand these people very well, I am one of them and I will be with them for the rest of my life.
“I see in their eyes that they need help.
“This project really stops human trafficking, without any doubt.
“We have 1,500 working in this project and there are more girls than boys.”
Mr Diskul said the reforestation project, which involved the plantation of one million trees – including 15,000 coffee trees and 85,000 of macadamia – has enabled inhabitants of the region to acquire new skills, creating employment for close to 2,000 people and helping move them out of poverty.
It has also attracted tourism into an area once controlled by drug gangs.
An extensive range of Doi Tung products such as coffee, macadamia nuts, hand-woven fabrics, mulberry paper, ceramics and pottery are now sold to visitors and imported around the world, bringing valuable income into the economy.
Mr Diskul, 67, says the project has helped push the average income of people in rural areas up to 40,000 Thai baht (BD410) a year from just 25 baht (256fils) two decades ago.
King Adulyadej is revered in his homeland for his dedication to improving the lives of his people.
He has also received international recognition for his projects from the World Health Organisation, and in May UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan presented him with the UN Development Programme’s first Human Development Lifetime Achievement Award.
“It has definitely had a positive effect on the Thai economy,” added Thai Embassy First Secretary Shakir Sevikul. “It has given people a new way of life and a whole new philosophy of self-sufficiency.
“It has also had an effect in preventing the problem of human trafficking.”
The GDN spoke to one mother living in northern Thailand and working in a weaving factory created as part of the Doi Tung project.
It supplies orders for hotels, restaurants and embassies around the world with a gross annual income of around $10 million (BD3.78m) and employs 300 women aged from their early 20s to 60s.
They work eight hours a day and are given an hour off for lunch and can choose how many days to work.
Each are paid around $5 (BD1.89) for every day they work, a considerable income in rural Thailand, and enjoy internationally accepted labour rights.
“Three years ago, I did not have any education and was illiterate,” said the woman, who only wanted to be known by her first name Orawan.
The 48-year-old mother of four said her income had increased eight times from when she worked in the fields planting rice and corn.
“I used to have to work outside in the rain and sun before this,” she said.
“Now my children are studying in a school run by the foundation and our quality of life is much better.”
“All these women, if not working here, would be in factories or selling themselves as prostitutes,” said Cottage Industry Centre manager Tony Zola.
“If they were not here, they would be in a brothel or growing opium.
“This gives them dignity, self-esteem, confidence and self-respect.
“Our aim is to try and retain people in the villages.
“Many of the older women here were involved in brothels and were trafficking girls aged 12, 13 and 15 from villages to Bangkok.”
© Gulf Daily News
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