Police extend probe into case of gang using kids to beg

[webfact]

Police extend probe into case of gang using kids to beg

By The Nation

 

 

Police extended their investigation into a case in which a human-trafficking gang allegedly paid Myanmar construction workers’ children Bt60 each to beg for money on the streets of Chiang Mai, following the rescue of 10 children from rented rooms in Muang district on Saturday, Chiang Mai deputy superintendent Pol Colonel Teerpol Intharalip said.

 

As the children were safely placed in a state shelter, police extended the probe to uncover the elusive suspects, including the mastermind of the whole scheme, he said.

 

Saturday’s raid on rented rooms in Tambon Tha Sala led to the arrest of two teens. Chiang Rai resident Udon Jayer, 19, was held over charges of reaping benefit from begging and harbouring illegal immigrants or helping them escape arrest, and a 16-year-old girl from the province was arrested on charges of using children as a tool in begging and begging on streets. 

 

 

During the raid, six suspects, including two men and two women aged 20-43, were also arrested for illegally staying in Thailand. Police at the time couldn't establish what their nationalities were.

 

The raid stemmed from an earlier operation that saw police round up three Myanmar women aged 29, 32 and 58 while they were taking three children aged 2, 4, and 7 to reportedly beg at a fresh market in Muang Chiang Mai. The adults were charged for using children as a tool in begging and begging on streets. 

 

 

The investigation found the gang used children to beg at various spots in the northern city from the afternoon until midnight each day, before returning them home. The money was split among those involved. 

 

Officers were able to pinpoint the location for the raid thanks to public complaints that a group of people had rented a place and were staying there with many children, whom they took out daily to beg on the streets.

 

As the filing of human-trafficking charges would require further screening and investigation, police initially went after the group under immigration offences and the Beggar Control Act BE 2559 (2016). The latter makes begging on the streets an offence punishable by a maximum jail term of one month and/or a maximum fine of Bt10,000, while the penalty for traffickers and those seeking to benefit from begging is a maximum prison term of three years and a maximum fine of Bt30,000.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30373365

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-07-22

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[gunderhill]

Those damned foreigners, round them all  up and ship them all  out.

[fishtank]

Thais have been using kids to beg, sell flowers etc for years and nothing has ever been done about it.

[dcnx]

38 minutes ago, fishtank said:

Thais have been using kids to beg, sell flowers etc for years and nothing has ever been done about it.

At least they cleaned up the drugged up amputees with fresh wounds from the streets of Bangkok. That was hard to look at.

[intherealworld]

Behind every gang operating in Thailand you will find a local at the helm.

just need to dig deep enough. 

TIT.

[RichardColeman]

Shouldn't really post this story, Might give the NIgerian scammers a new idea

[JulesMad]

Happens everywhere in the world unfortunately... Even in so-called developed countries

[animalmagic]

1 hour ago, RichardColeman said:

Shouldn't really post this story, Might give the NIgerian scammers a new idea

What Nigerian Scammers?

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, fishtank said:

Thais have been using kids to beg, sell flowers etc for years and nothing has ever been done about it.

Restricted occupation... 

[Artisi]

Mind shattering news, it's great the Nation is on the ball and upto date on these things. 

[Tops]

Thai culture. Thai bosses controlling it !!!

Last Friday I was with my son of 22 and several friends on Nana's Sukhumvit soi 4. In the 2 hours we were staying there we have seen over 50 small boys begging for money. 

 

Around midnight my son and a Thai friend talked with a little boy who didn't know his age. We thought he was about 4 years old and begging for money because he didn't eat for 5 days. My son just took him around the corner to treat him for a burger meal at Mc D. Together with the Thai friend we all discovered that he was about 6 years old and already on the BKK streets since he was 0. He didn't have a mom but had some Thai uncles, aunts etc... He was send to the streets to beg for money. If he did not have 1000 THB for the night he would not get any food. Big police was friend from uncle... When we were at McD 2 of his brothers showed up, both hungry as hell. We also treated them. While sitting there, 2 police entered. Boys were very scared, saying boss, boss here. They went straight to our table. My son trying to record this on his phone was hit by the police with a bat. His phone was badly damaged he couldn't use it any more. He's now back in Europe and maybe he has some recordings. Staff of McD and police ordered us to go or we would be arrested for trespassing. We had to go. The kids went with the police... Back to soi 4 !!!

[nickstav]

39 minutes ago, Tops said:

Thai culture. Thai bosses controlling it !!!

Last Friday I was with my son of 22 and several friends on Nana's Sukhumvit soi 4. In the 2 hours we were staying there we have seen over 50 small boys begging for money. 

 

Around midnight my son and a Thai friend talked with a little boy who didn't know his age. We thought he was about 4 years old and begging for money because he didn't eat for 5 days. My son just took him around the corner to treat him for a burger meal at Mc D. Together with the Thai friend we all discovered that he was about 6 years old and already on the BKK streets since he was 0. He didn't have a mom but had some Thai uncles, aunts etc... He was send to the streets to beg for money. If he did not have 1000 THB for the night he would not get any food. Big police was friend from uncle... When we were at McD 2 of his brothers showed up, both hungry as hell. We also treated them. While sitting there, 2 police entered. Boys were very scared, saying boss, boss here. They went straight to our table. My son trying to record this on his phone was hit by the police with a bat. His phone was badly damaged he couldn't use it any more. He's now back in Europe and maybe he has some recordings. Staff of McD and police ordered us to go or we would be arrested for trespassing. We had to go. The kids went with the police... Back to soi 4 !!!

What a shame. There must be some reputable NGO that might be interested in this that you could report it to anonymously.

[Boit]

I have heard from more than one Thai person that a van in Chiang Mai goes to busy outside markets, and when a shopping mother isn't looking they snatch her child, throws him/her into the van and drives off, and Mama never sees her child again.  If the child is not raking in enough money, the gang chops off an arm or leg to gain more sympathy from passers by to get more money. 

Amputating a child's extremity(ies) for money!!! Can there be any lower life form in the human pool?  And now this story says the police are in on the take? Does anyone anywhere here in the LOS regulate crooked cops? 

[balo]

12 hours ago, intherealworld said:

Behind every gang operating in Thailand you will find a local at the helm.

just need to dig deep enough. 

Easy to blame the Thais for everything but there is a big community of Burmese and Lao people up in the north, and many of them operate in gangs. 

[Benmart]

14 hours ago, JulesMad said:

Happens everywhere in the world unfortunately... Even in so-called developed countries

The article is about Thailand. Focus.

[mikebell]

I wrote a story about this ten years ago.  How time flies!

https://mwbell2000.wixsite.com/mikebell

[Beggar]

There are so many strange people giving these beggars money and so helping these gangs. Obviously they don't understand that they don't remove a problem but create one. Same with people feeding soi dogs and pigeons. 

[boonrawdcnx]

Thai culture. Thai bosses controlling it !!!
Last Friday I was with my son of 22 and several friends on Nana's Sukhumvit soi 4. In the 2 hours we were staying there we have seen over 50 small boys begging for money. 
 
Around midnight my son and a Thai friend talked with a little boy who didn't know his age. We thought he was about 4 years old and begging for money because he didn't eat for 5 days. My son just took him around the corner to treat him for a burger meal at Mc D. Together with the Thai friend we all discovered that he was about 6 years old and already on the BKK streets since he was 0. He didn't have a mom but had some Thai uncles, aunts etc... He was send to the streets to beg for money. If he did not have 1000 THB for the night he would not get any food. Big police was friend from uncle... When we were at McD 2 of his brothers showed up, both hungry as hell. We also treated them. While sitting there, 2 police entered. Boys were very scared, saying boss, boss here. They went straight to our table. My son trying to record this on his phone was hit by the police with a bat. His phone was badly damaged he couldn't use it any more. He's now back in Europe and maybe he has some recordings. Staff of McD and police ordered us to go or we would be arrested for trespassing. We had to go. The kids went with the police... Back to soi 4 !!!

This has been going on forever. And yes controlled by the police.
Many years ago the other newspaper did a special report on organized begging in Bangkok.
The gangs brought in poor elderly women from Eesan to beg in the streets of Bangkok.

They where taken by minibus to their locations to beg every day. The women talked about how embarrassed and humiliated they felt at first begging in the streets.
They where instructed to remove the money they received into a bag and hide it only leave a few coins in their bowl.
Most of them never knew how much money they made in a day. One day one of the women counted the money while she was sitting there under a cloth from one bag into another - she counted 3000 Baht - and that was approx. 30 years ago!
The gang was running about 30-40 of these women.
The woman thought instead of the little money she received from the gang she would go out by herself and beg and was of course promptly arrested. She returned to the gang which was obviously controlled by the police in Bangkok.
After 3 months or so the women where send home with a “salary” of about 10.000 baht.
One can only imagine the money these gang made using elderly people counting on Thais walking past associating them with a poor elderly relative or parent feeling sorry for them making merit by giving.
If you know that these kids are being used and abused in a certain area you should report it to an NGO involved in child rescue - you can not trust the police - because the people who are supposed to uphold the law in this country are one large money making criminal enterprise.





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[graemeaylward]

Thai culture. Thai bosses controlling it !!!
Last Friday I was with my son of 22 and several friends on Nana's Sukhumvit soi 4. In the 2 hours we were staying there we have seen over 50 small boys begging for money. 
 
Around midnight my son and a Thai friend talked with a little boy who didn't know his age. We thought he was about 4 years old and begging for money because he didn't eat for 5 days. My son just took him around the corner to treat him for a burger meal at Mc D. Together with the Thai friend we all discovered that he was about 6 years old and already on the BKK streets since he was 0. He didn't have a mom but had some Thai uncles, aunts etc... He was send to the streets to beg for money. If he did not have 1000 THB for the night he would not get any food. Big police was friend from uncle... When we were at McD 2 of his brothers showed up, both hungry as hell. We also treated them. While sitting there, 2 police entered. Boys were very scared, saying boss, boss here. They went straight to our table. My son trying to record this on his phone was hit by the police with a bat. His phone was badly damaged he couldn't use it any more. He's now back in Europe and maybe he has some recordings. Staff of McD and police ordered us to go or we would be arrested for trespassing. We had to go. The kids went with the police... Back to soi 4 !!!

Terrible story! However, as a former Probation Officer, and Safeguarding Officer, whilst I applaud the actions of these guys, be very careful, as they could easily have been arrested as paedophiles, trying to "pick up" kids for their own use. Having worked with sex offenders and paedophiles for many years, this is how they start to befriend their victims. It is far safer to talk to these children "in situ", film them, give them a sandwich etc. and report it to an NGO or child protection services, in order to protect yourself from a misinterpretation of your well meaning acts.


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[jaiyen]

Why doesn't someone tell the all caring Prime Minister  ??  He will get someone to look into it !!  Probably a bent cop who will report back that he couldn't find any kids on the street !!