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I'm Australian and here on a Visa Exempt 30 day stay and want to leave Thailand via Mae Sai and return the same day after an hour or so walking around Tachilek, obtaining a new Visa Exempt 15 day entry on return back to Thailand. Can anyone tell me if that is still possible ?

Many posters in this thread remind me of an old quote...It's been used before and I don't know who first said it...

"To thrive, evil needs nothing more than for good men to do nothing"

I have seen well intentioned reports created by academics in NGO's and GO's, quoting others quotes and each other endlessly and citing dubious facts based on limited and poor research. Having in depth experience at the pointy end of this work I can say I have read very few reports that accurately reflect the situation at hand on the ground. Very few NGO's dare to tread where organizations such as The Grey Man and others also involved in this work dare to go. These are the NGO's who are really in touch with the extent of the problem and deal with the victims and the traffickers on a daily basis.

So, for those relying on single line quotes from yet another Academic NGO report to base their incredibly narrow knowledge of the massive extent of human trafficking in Thailand and most of South East and South Asia I say this...

Go do some real research...Get out on the ground and have a look around before you shoot off at the mouth and prove yourself to be a completely clueless individual.

I would agree with that. Tell us about Grey man. Does it compare to Empower Foundation? Empower Foundation, "More than 50,000 sex workers have been a formal part of Empower over the last 27 years.Empower members include sex workers from Thailand and migrant sex-workers mainly from Mekong countries such as Laos, Burma1, China, and Cambodia. Empower currently has centers based in 11 provinces in Thailand reaching over 20,000 sex workers regularly.Despite these efforts our industry is stillover represented in anti-trafficking raids and misrepresented as inherently violent, exploitative and an equivalent to human trafficking. People still do not know about or understand how current anti-trafficking practices are not only abusing the rights of individuals, but are a huge barrier to our efforts to further reduce exploitation in their industry.

So you represent Empower ?

So how many quotes does someone need before they suddenly become credible ? Please...Get a life...

I would suggest if you know about any instances of current sex slave trafficking that you write Andrew Drummond and give him the specifics. I think he could direct you who to report it to.

But if you don’t have any current sex slave trafficking information why don’t you stop writing like you do. That is what got Grey man in trouble. Making up stuff about sex trafficking that may have happened years ago but was false today.

If I am wrong and you personally do know about current sex slave trafficking like you claim, how do you sleep at night not trying to stop it?

Also...

I don't think there are sex slaves in Thailand who have been trafficked

Taken in context, you are stating and strongly implying that no one could possibly have seen Human Trafficking in the sex trade, certainly not in the last few years. You are also suggesting the utterly ridiculous...Report it to Andrew Drummond...The self styled investigative journalist...What is he going to do ?

If Andrew was any kind of a respectable journalist, he would report all the facts, not just those that support his personal hypothesis.

With regards to the point of the thread, I am on topic as much as you or anyone else is..

"I suppose people could make a connection between those kids and brothels but it was not our intention. I will discuss it with our people, but I think people realise a site like ours will have photos of kids on it." (Now if that is not the biggest load of horse pucky I don't know what is.)I have to tell you if you take pictures of my children and put them up on a sex slave trafficking web site and I am going to be upset

Looking at The Grey Man website, I see that that they also conduct prevention work and it seems quite appropriate that there will be images of children, adults, girls, boys, men, women, cars, motorbikes, pick up trucks, houses, farm implements etc...

No one else makes the link and decides that the farm implements are trafficked ? How do you make that link ? I certainly don't unless the tag line on the image specifically says 'Image of trafficked farm implements'...

I'd suggest you take a simple high school course in media studies and critical thinking.

I was reading the other, now closed, thread related to this subject and thinking that I want to do something to help this battle against child abuse. I would be happy to set up a direct debit to an accredited agency working on this subject in Thailand.

Now this news appears and everything looks murky with this particular organization. I don't know the truth of what happened, how could I possibly? However I do know that the standards of governance in a charity of this type should be beyond impeccable.

This story looks like an unmitigated disaster, and defeats the willingness of people like me to invest in this fight. Terrible.

I am aware of the TV rule that lobbying of members is not allowed, fair enough, if it was then we would be getting bombarded with requests every day in the week. I do feel though that there is a well of goodwill and strength amongst TV members in regards to this subject.

if someone could pm me and put me in the direction of an accredited organization that I can donate to I would appreciate it.

We will win this battle one child at a time.

Trafcord and FACE (Fight against Child Exploitation) are quite hands on here in Thailand., if you message me on my site I will give u the details

Andrew, your credibility takes a huge dive with this post.

You fail to mention that Traffcord initiated the complaints against The Grey Man and that one of their main employees was an ex-employee of The Grey Man and has a big chip upon his shoulder. Your reports have been one sided and ill informed. At least when you post, reveal all the facts, not just selective ones.

Sex trafficing is both a global problem, and increasing. Have you already forgotten the recent case in Thailand of the Malaysian girl and her Burmese companions. The 6 people convicted in the UK last week? I will be kind and call you unaware.

Agree it is a global problem and more prevalent in developing countries. Those that think it is phony or a myth need to take the blinkers off and come out of thier cacoon and actually take notice of what is happening around them.

I think the most recent and credible survey on sex trafficking in Thailand was done by the Empower foundation 2012. "The impact of anti trafficking policy and practice on Sex Worker's Human Rights inThailand."The survey said as it relates to Grey Man, "However as our research shows, there remain strong incentives within the anti-trafficking movement to target the Thai sex industry using the old raid and rescue approach, which results inhuman rights abuses, legal violations and incompetent practice, all of which are still prominent in Not For Sale Campaign and Global Exchange 2012 A, 2012 article: The Grey Man Will Blow Critics Out Of The Water."To restate in terms everyone can understand the Empower Foundation in 2012 found that Grey man was using " the old raid and rescue approach, which results in human rights abuses, legal violations and incompetent practice."

All this from the guy who thinks there is no Human Trafficking ?

I was reading the other, now closed, thread related to this subject and thinking that I want to do something to help this battle against child abuse. I would be happy to set up a direct debit to an accredited agency working on this subject in Thailand.

Now this news appears and everything looks murky with this particular organization. I don't know the truth of what happened, how could I possibly? However I do know that the standards of governance in a charity of this type should be beyond impeccable.

This story looks like an unmitigated disaster, and defeats the willingness of people like me to invest in this fight. Terrible.

I am aware of the TV rule that lobbying of members is not allowed, fair enough, if it was then we would be getting bombarded with requests every day in the week. I do feel though that there is a well of goodwill and strength amongst TV members in regards to this subject.

if someone could pm me and put me in the direction of an accredited organization that I can donate to I would appreciate it.

We will win this battle one child at a time.

Three threads running right now about trafficking and HIV/AIDS. I have opinions about all that stuff. There is an organization outside of Rayong that takes care of HIV orphans. These are kids who are HIV positive with no family to take care of them. I give the organization money, time and used stuff that I don’t need anymore. You can google it. A number of Farang help them out and don’t get any money of publicity from it. Bars help them out too. Prostitutes cook and serve the kids food on holidays. The Thai government does not do much for them. I certainly would not send money to any charity based in another country like Australia, US or the UK. Not that they are all bad I just would not send them anything. I have been around Thailand for a while.

The trafficking sex slaves is phony today, the HIV/AIDS is not. Just my opinion but like I told my GF last night, I got to Thailand before you were born missy; and she turns 40 next year.

I applaud your charity work, however...

Did you know that the Thai Government has now managed to eradicate human trafficking and cease drug and arms trafficking ?

Now anyone who says they have seen these crimes taking place are Phony!