Rescue Operations
Child Trafficking
Child trafficking is the recruitment, transport and transfer of children, through abduction, deception or force, done in order to exploit them in some way. It’s horrific – and it goes on every day, all over the world.
Most often, children are trafficked for sexual exploitation (like prostitution), and for cheap labour in mines and factories.
Trafficking often happens because children or their families desperately need to earn money, but have few or no opportunities to do so. Traffickers take advantage of the situation. They make lucrative profits from vulnerable children who have no choice and no power to resist.
- It is estimated that 1.2 million children are trafficked each year.
- In the world’s poorest countries, around 250 million children between the ages of five and 14 are working. Many of them have been trafficked.
Thailand: the situation
The trafficking of human cargo is rampant on the Thai border. This is largely due to the fact that for people living in countries like Laos and Myanmar, Thailand’s relative prosperity is highly attractive. Human trafficking and exploitation often occurs when vulnerable people are tantalised by the offer of a better life.
Traffickers take advantage of people’s dreams by (falsely) promising them opportunities they have little chance of realising by themselves. Thailand’s quality of life has been ranked 73rd out of 177 countries on the 2004 Human Development Index*, and this global measure puts Thailand far ahead of its neighbours – this is why there is so much action on the border.
* Australia comes in at No. 3.
