Protect Children from Sex Trafficking in Thailand

6 Month Update:

Thailand recently had another large covid outbreak and the virus has spread all throughout the country. Many may believe that Covid only hurts the sick, but it also has caused a spike in our cases and exploitation among children. Schools have had to close down so children remain at home and on their phones. Children continue to use social media, but still unknowingly are contacted by predators posed as young teens. 

Since January 2021 our small team have assisted 11 victims who are children 1 adult from total of criminal 6 cases. The majority of cases are online trafficking however In one of the cases, our client was recruited for sex by a government official and his wife. After 2 years of living in that house, at the age of 13, she ran away and asked for help. Our team assisted to have her relocate to be under witness protection program. She has been there since February and will be in a safe place until her trial is complete. Our team also support the witness of the case with transportation and lodging because witness has to travel half a country to testify. We also manage to have this case being investigated by the Anti Trafficking Team from the National team and ensure this case stay away from the local influence. 

Our job has never been easy and during the time of Covid it has been harder for us to travel and to support the case. Many of our cases from last year, their trial has also been postponed, but our team is still committed to ensure that child victims of human trafficking are well protected. 

During the first quarter of this year. Our team was successfully able to get trafficking funds for a few of our clients. For example, we worked with the division of anti trafficking in persons under the Ministry of Social Development and human secutiry to request funds for a trafficking victim. We managed to get scholarship for our client to take a course at a prestigious language training school, this would allow him to improve his language skills and have a better opportunity of getting a high paying job in the future. and to get another monthly support for career training for two other clients 

Also for nine months HUG's director have been working with Trafficking Hub and Michael Bowe (the lawyer representing the women) from Brown Rudnick and a team of attorneys to support seven of our Thai clients (6 of them were trafficked victims).Today the lawsuit has finally been filed against MindGeek, the parent company of Pornhub. Read more from the link in this report.

We are also excited to announce the HUG Project partnership with the Thailand Office of the Attorney General. The partnership will be five years long, and will focus on enhancing a child-friendly justice system among public prosecutors working with child victims of human trafficking, sexual abuse, and other forms of violence against children. As the journey begins, we have been learning from Dr. Wanida Paoin (Director of Child Abuse Center, Thammasat University Hospital) and also from our FBI partner on the topic of the US FBI Model. 

Thank you again for all of your support. Your support help us to continue to serve Thai Children. Thank you! Kop Khun Kha (Thank you in Thai language). 

Links:

• News about the lawsuit against Mindgeek.

In the first quarter, we have already rescued 7 girls, as young as 7 years old up to 18 years old. All 7 girls were rescued from sex trafficking across Thailand. One girl was rescued in the south of Thailand and 2 offenders will be arrested for this case. The second case was a 7 year old girl who was trafficked by her mother. The mother and another offender will be facing charges. The 7 year old survivor is now being supported by a government shelter. The third case was the rescue of 2 victims who are 15 and 17 years old. Both girls were rescued from a "spa" in Northern Thailand, which was a cover up for exploiting children for sex. 1 offender was arrested in this case and will be facing charges. The last case involved 3 girls who were sexually exploited online. 2 offenders were arrested and another offender will be arrested soon. Because of these various cases, our director was invited to speak on Chanel 5 news. On national television, she urged all Thai people to report authorities since young children do not have all the tools to ask for help. We are committed to making sure that all survivors will be reintegrated back into society and have support from various professionals. HUG will continue to work along side the victims and support teams such as law enforcement officials and prosecutors. While protection is crucial, we have also focused on preventing the abuse through educating children at schools. Our most recent workshop was at the deaf school in Chiang Mai, in hopes to spread awareness of the dangers of human trafficking and abuse. These preventative methods can change a child’s life. We are also grateful for the support from Twitter Thailand and other partners since we have been able to work along side them to spread the message about the dangers of online sexual exploitation. Thank you so much for your support. With your donations, we have been able to continue our work to support survivors all across Thailand. Covid has been an invisible barrier for everyone, but we have been able to work harder and overcome many challenges with your support. Thank you everyone for your donation and we look forward to updating you during the next quarter.