Updated: Thailand’s shame

There are many reports available on Thailand’s downgrade to Tier 3 – the lowest tier – by the U.S. government. The Guardian reports that:

The US has signalled its mounting concern over modern-day slavery in Thailand and Qatar after it downgraded both countries on its human trafficking watchlist following revelations of appalling maltreatment of migrant workers.

Thailand was relegated to the lowest rank in the state department’s Trafficking in Persons (TiP) report – meaning it is now considered no better than North Korea, Iran or Saudi Arabia in the way it treats workers and protects them from abuse.

Reuters makes the same point:

The U.S. State Department downgraded Thailand, Malaysia and Venezuela on Friday to its list of the world’s worst centres of human trafficking, opening up the countries to possible sanctions and dumping them in the same category as North Korea and Syria.

This comes at a critical time for the country: coup, military junta, the reports earlier by The Guardian on slavery on ships in the seafood industry, and the mammoth movement of fearful Cambodian migrant workers back home, probably now numbering close to 200,000.

One point to note about this is that, while it comes at a time that reflects particularly badly for Thailand’s military dictatorship, it is not just the military that has failed and, indeed, been implicated in trafficking. All recent Thai governments have been downright awful on this matter, with the Abhisit Vejjajiva regime being amongst the most hopeless. With its military allies, Abhisit’s government adopted hardline tactics more than once. It copped plenty of flak. Then minister Kasit Piromya even worked on plans to repatriate Burmese refugees. The Yingluck Shinawatra government was unable to reign in the military.

The complicity of military and civil officials in trafficking is shown in the TiP report:

There continued to be reports that corrupt Thai civilian and military officials profited from the smuggling of Rohingya asylum seekers from Burma and Bangladesh (who transit through Thailand in order to reach Malaysia or Indonesia) and were complicit in their sale into forced labor on fishing vessels. Thai navy and marine officials allegedly diverted to Thailand boats carrying Rohingya asylum seekers en route to Malaysia and facilitated the transfer of some migrants to smugglers and brokers who sold some Rohingya into forced labor on fishing vessels. Additionally, there are media reports that some Thai police officials systematically removed Rohingya men from detention facilities in Thailand and sold them to smugglers and brokers; these smugglers and brokers allegedly transported the men to southern Thailand where some were forced to work as cooks and guards in camps, or were sold into forced labor on farms or in shipping companies.

The mistreatment of migrants in Thailand is reflective of the elite’s gross capacity for vile exploitation that is often embedded in deeply held and racist perspectives on the elite’s entitlements and privilege. The current military dictatorship is probably the least likely regime to do anything serious about this shameful situation.

Update: One of the creepy things about recent politics in Thailand is how some officials switch sides and sound equally disgusting no matter which political side they currently “represent.” There are several examples, including The Eel, who is notoriously slippery and slimy. Another is the former Thaksin Shinawatra posterior polisher from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sihasak Phuangketkeow. In response to the U.S. report discussed above, the slippery permanent secretary of the Ministry “responded angrily to the TIP report today, calling the downgrade unfair.” He added that he felt “very disappointed and strongly disagree with it [the downgrading].” This comes from a person who has spent his recent years defending the undefendable on human rights, like the military’s use of cluster bombs and the draconian lese majeste law. This slippery character even announced that “Thailand deserve[d] an upgrade in the annual TIP report for its ‘significant progress’ in combatting human trafficking.” There is either more horse manure at MFA than at Churchill Downs or the place is full of dunces. It seems like it is the latter, for Sihasak stated, “I insist that Thailand upholds the principles of human rights…”. He’s deaf, dumb, blind and stupid it seems.