Francis Maiava undertook the research during a three-year stint in Bangkok. He says the scale of the problem, including the bribery of police and immigration officers to overlook such offences, is overwhelming. The study broaches the murky territory where police officers mandated to combat illegal sex trafficking are often part of the corrupt system that enables traffickers in Thailand - known as the hub of the sex trade internationally.
His research revealed numerous accounts of police and immigration officers being bribed by traffickers at border entry points to ignore their activities. Advertisement - scroll to continue reading Are you getting our free newsletter? It examines various international, national and regional anti-trafficking laws and proposes innovative approaches β such as community policing β as a key tool to combat human trafficking.
Rugby academy for slum kids leads to human trafficking research His research β which he has presented to two high-ranking Thai police superintendents β was driven by an awareness of the potential for community policing and the hope it could make a difference to the safety of migrant communities in Thailand.
He was living with his family in Bangkok, where his wife was working for the New Zealand government when he decided to research the topic. He volunteered at the academy, called Nak Suu Rugby Academy, to help the children of migrant workers from Burma whose parents worked all day, leaving them at home unsupervised and with nothing to do. He says the migratory journey of people from the Greater Mekong Sub-region β including from Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam β in search of better opportunities in a foreign land, is fraught with dangers, which in turn, increases their vulnerability to human trafficking.
An added complexity is that victims do not always see themselves as such because they are prepared to take huge risks in being exploited so they can send money to their families back home, he says. They risk being jailed without legal representation, assault and contracting sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS.
