The page report documents the direct involvement of Thai police and border guards in the illicit sex trade, and the Thai government's routine failure to punish its own officials and others who engage in or profit from this abuse. It concludes that in alone the Royal Thai Government, rather than punishing officials and other traffickers, has wrongfully arrested and deported hundreds of Burmese victims, in clear violation of Thailand's obligations under national and international law.
Human Rights Watch urges the Chuan administration to investigate and prosecute officials and other traffickers, to stop the unwarranted arrest and deportation of trafficking victims and to ensure the women and girls' safe return to Burma. A Modern Form of Slavery: Trafficking of Burmese Women and Girls into Brothels in Thailand , based on three missions to Thailand by Human Rights Watch Asia and Women's Rights divisions, documents over fifty cases of Burmese women and girls lured by unscrupulous recruiters to Thailand with promises of good jobs and a cash advance, often paid to their parents.
Human Rights Watch traces the women and girls' cross-border transport and their confinement in illegal brothels throughout Thailand where they are forced to work off their debt, often with percent interest, through what amounts to sexual servitude. The Burmese women and girls work ten to eighteen hours a day, twenty-five days a month with anywhere from clients a day.
Health care and birth control information are minimal. Most of the women and girls are interviewed were virgins when they entered Thailand; fifty to seventy percent of them were HIV positive when they left.
Escape for the Burmese women and girls is virtually impossible. Thai NGOs estimate that over 20, Burmese women and girls are currently in Thai brothels, with 10, new recruits each year. The vast majority of the women and girls had Thai police officers as clients, often with special privileges. They spoke of their brothels being located near police stations and of witnessing brothel owners paying protection money to local police. A survey reported by a major Bangkok newspaper found that the standard fee paid by brothel owners to police depends on the size of the brothel: In November , Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai pledged to crack down on official involvement in forced and child prostitution.
