Long-neck Karen Held Before Sale

[george]

Long-neck Karen held before sale

MAE HONG SON: -- Twenty long-neck Karen (Padaung) were arrested while crossing the Thai-Burma border on Wednesday night, police said yesterday.

The group were relatives of a woman married to a Bangkok businessman who allegedly aimed to sell them to a group of Phuket investors for Bt10 million.

Provincial Governor Direk Konkleeb urged officers to extend the investigation to arrest those behind this alleged human trafficking.

A Padaung woman identified as "Som-O" - who led the group across the border - told police they had come from Doi Kor province's Ti Mo So district in Burma to stay with Padaung residents in Mae Hong Son's Huai Pukaeng Village.

Som-O said she had been living in Huai Pukaeng Village for a long time and heard the Padaung at Ti Mo So lived a hard life, so she invited them to cross the border with her to live in Thailand.

The woman appeared to be very stressed so police placed her on a close watch to prevent her from committing suicide.

Another Padaung told police that Som-O had early last year married a Bangkok businessman - who was already married to a Thai woman - and built a resort in Ban Huai Deu to support Som-O's relatives.

The Padaung said the businessman wanted 20 Padaung from Ti Mo So sold to a group of Phuket investors for Bt10 million.

The Padaung - currently being held for further investigations at Muang Mae Hong Son police station - would later be sent to the immigration police for deportation.

-- The Nation 2007-02-02

[Laulen]

Human trafficking of whatever kind is an absolute abomination. Those who do this are not worthy to be called human themselves, even if they believe that they are offering these people a better life.

Just think what that Bt10 million could have been spent on in Burma itself. Medical supplies, shelter and other basic necessities are almost non-existent in eastern Burma.

It is such a sad thing for these long-necked Karens.

[Tony Clifton]

Disgusting...

[TAWP]

No parading of the businessman infront of the press?

[Foggy Bottom]

So how about TV members doing some observing to identify the newly built resort so the businessman involved can be identified?

Wringing hands achieves nothing here, but a well co-ordinated snooping could give TV membership the chance for a worldwide scoop over the locals and raise some dosh for keeping the site up and running.

Gaz

[Tony Clifton]

Were they planning on making a zoo-like theme park/resort "featuring" these poor people?

Edited February 3, 2007 by Tony Clifton

[falux]

Were they planning on making a zoo-like theme park/resort "featuring" these poor people?

I was wondering something similar. And how do you "sell" people? Maybe "Sign here please, guarantee is 1 year" ?

Sometimes I wonder if we humans are not closer related to monkeys than we hope to be. Cruel indeed.

[chownah]

Cruelty? What cruelty? They got caught crossing the border, they told their story, and now they will be deported.....where's the cruelty? You have to admit that their story sounds alot better than saying " Yeah I was trying to sneak into Thailand and you caught me...oh well." Not only that but they got alot of free press advertising what thier going rate is....this free PR just might find them a sucker.

Chownah

P.S. What cruelty?

Chownah

[Jai Dee]

Update:

Thais block 'human zoo' refugees from moving to NZ

A United Nations official is accusing Thai authorities of barring a group of 20 Burmese refugees from resettling in New Zealand because they are a "human zoo" tourist attraction in a remote area of Thailand.

Foreign tourists visiting villages in Mae Hong Son, near the border with Myanmar, pay to see and photograph Padaung women who from the age of five wear brass coiled rings around their necks to give them a giraffe-like appearance.

But the BBC has quoted a UN High Commissioner for Refugees regional spokeswoman, Kitty McKinsey, as saying Thai authorities have refused to allow 20 Padaung to leave the country, despite firm offers to resettle them in New Zealand and Finland.

"The Thai authorities are treating them in a special way," she told the BBC, pointing out that some 20,000 other Burmese refugees had recently been allowed to move to third countries.

"It's absolutely a human zoo... One solution is for tourists to stop going."

One of the Padaung women, Zember, 23, has removed her neck rings in protest after being told two years ago she and her family had been accepted for resettlement, only to be prevented from leaving Thailand.

"I was so happy," she said. "They tell me a house is already waiting for us in New Zealand."

Her family fled eastern Myanmar 18 years ago after government troops raided their village and took the men away by force to work as porters.

Wachira Chotirosseranee, the deputy district officer and refugee camp commander, disputed that Zember and the other 19 Padaung were refugees and insisted that tourism had nothing to do with the issue. "According to the regulations, you have to live inside the refugee camp. They don't meet the criteria."

But Ms McKinsey said the Padaung group were refugees.

"It comes as a great surprise that the Thai authorities are criticising them for living outside the camps, when it was the Thai authorities who wanted them to live (outside)."

New Zealand's Labour Department today confirmed it had assessed the Padaung group and issued permanent residence visas under the UNHCR quota programme.

But so far the "Thai authorities have not issued the necessary exit permits to allow them to come to New Zealand".

Source: NZPA - 31 January 2008

[Scott]

Chownah: I hate to agree with you, but I guess I have to. I mean if the gov't can hold them in a human 'zoo', then I don't see where anyone should be too severely criticized for 'selling' them. Maybe PETA would have better luck with their case than UNHCR!