8 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

Ah, the pointing is back, missed it. This time by a gang of Michael Jacksons, nice touch.

  

  Or Samaras from 'The Ring'.

5 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Almost every building site in Chiang Mai is packed with illegals.

Illegal shanty towns housing them regularly spring up just out of town.

There's one currently in the narrow road from 'Love Boat' to Canal road, 100m from Canal road.

Hardly remote or obscure.

 

6 hours ago, cornishcarlos said:

 

Agree... It's amazing when you live outside the main tourist spots, or just travel the country, how many girlie bars there are in the small towns/villages.

They are everywhere and in numbers that you wouldn't think necessary for such small towns !!

Even if the tourist "hotspots" were ever cleaned up, they could never get rid of the business in Thailand, just too much local demand it would seem...

I read somewhere that it is reckoned that two thirds of the Thai adult male population are contributing

to prostitution in some capacity.

1 hour ago, cornishcarlos said:

 

I live in the south... But not a tourist destination... There are plenty of girlie bars in every town and village.

Whether they are supplied by trafficking/forced labor, I have no idea but they are there...

I live in a large village/small town in central Thailand, I do not know anywhere in it where there are any girlie bars, or anywhere where there is paid for sex available.

I am not saying there isn't, I am just saying that if I was looking for it, I would not know where to start.

 

1 minute ago, possum1931 said:

I live in a large village/small town in central Thailand, I do not know anywhere in it where there are any girlie bars, or anywhere where there is paid for sex available.

I am not saying there isn't, I am just saying that if I was looking for it, I would not know where to start.

 

 

Just drive around at night with your eyes open... Bars, sometimes just houses, decorated with fairy lights will be the spot ?

I'd be very surprised if you live in the only town without them !!

8 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

"...Somchai Homlaor, a lawyer and HRDF president, pointed out a similar issue of authorities rushing to prosecute cases and taking them to court. Despite the superficial enthusiasm, in reality a rushed job meant the investigation was not thorough, he said. Ultimately, the traffickers ended up being acquitted due to insufficient evidence, he said. “Rather than focusing on quantity, we should look at the end result of the cases,” the lawyer said..." 

 

I think Kh Somchai's comments in the paragraph above are an excellent summation of the Thai legal system. Make a lot of noise (occasionally and with plenty of warning), give press conferences, have photo ops and claim victory. However, any 'results' are superficial and temporary at best.

 

Rinse and repeat.

 

 

Many of times it is the police and other authorities that are themselves found to be involved in the trade 

9 hours ago, webfact said:

According to the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, Thailand prosecuted 333 human trafficking cases in 2016 and 302 cases in 2017. Of those, 244 and 246 respectively related to prostitution, involving persons being lured or forced into the sex trade.

I will guarantee you that the same numbers in the US are at least one, possibly two, order(s) of magnitude greater.

47 minutes ago, AsiaHand said:

Many of times it is the police and other authorities that are themselves found to be involved in the trade 

Or just happen to "borrow" large sums of money from people in the trade.  See linked article and imagine if a loan of this sort was made to a police chief in LA, London, Paris, New York, etc.  The punishment would involve more than movement to an "inactive post".  Notice also how we don't hear much about this case anymore.  I wonder why?  http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/ex-police-chief-admits-borrowing-300-million-baht-fugitive-owner-victoria-secret-massage-parlour/

Maybe rife alright but the guys in control are high up in the food chain. Every now and then they catch a few nobodies to make it look good but the main guys in control of it all are protected They call it Corruption

Back in the late 60s, I had a major stake in a bar. Ladies received a salary and those who "bought out" did so on their own. Ladies had the right, and exercised it, to refuse customers who were pushy or drunk.

I can see how it would be more difficult to find the forced laborer on a rickety fishing boat in the middle of the ocean, compared with finding the poor unsuspecting girl who was forced to work in a bar doing things she never wanted to do, especially if the bar owner hadn't made the required payments to local authorities. If I was investigating human trafficking, I would much rather do it at the bar. I guess these girls run away for the forced-sex-worker bars pretty routinely. Probably want to turn their selves into the local authorities, so they can be sent back to their home countries.

Do you think this human trafficking in a country without the help of the police is possible?

Channel 5 TV in the UK had a very interesting documentary on this very topic last night which focused on the powerful Kazak gangs that control vast networks of girls tricked into coming to Thailand and then being forced at work as prostitutes in Bangkok and Pattaya. The documentary followed the undercover work of the DSI and others trying to arrest those responsible and rescue the girls.

 

http://www.channel5.com/show/21st-century-sex-slaves/

I find it ironic that the US Government sits in judgement of the human rights records of other countries, particularly these days.

1 minute ago, charmonman said:

I find it ironic that the US Government sits in judgement of the human rights records of other countries, particularly these days.

 

 Less ironic, more hypocritical.

On looking at the photo, the girlies at the back seem to be doing a dance for a rock band...what an amazing circus !! ?

And yes folks, just when you thought they'd gone away - the pointing fingers are back - yippee - missed you!