Thai masseuses enslaved in South Africa seek DSI action

[HUAHIN62]

Hmmmm they could phone the husband but could not phone the SA police or the Thai embassy in Pretoria. Ok lets think about it something is wrong, very wrong with their story.

[Dumu Ali]

The old taking the passport trick.

It's called theft, report it to the police. If you can't be assed to take such simple action then your 'slavery' is self-imposed.

easy 4 u 2 say, some r born with gold spoon and some with no spoon n no skool. How to go to the police and then will the police help or make your problem bigger? will the embassy help? how 2 go 2 all these places when u hv language and money problem .. pls keep it real and understand that dis really is a wicked thing and my heart goes out to her and all the other women enslaved in what they fooled 2 think is a ministry operation n I pray to God that someone help

[Donnie Brasco]

Out of respect for the two ladies in such serious trouble, the moderators should delete the comments thread and keep it as a closed topic. Nothing said here can help the women, so why waste the server space on such disrespectful, shit-for-brain comments from TV armchair pontiffs.

And just *how* pray-tell does this "respectful silence" you prefer serve ANYONE but those who SUPPORT and PROFIT from this kind of exploitation.

In a jurisdiction like Thailand, in which *so much* of its trusting, obedient, diligent citizenry have been culturally, semiotically, systematically conditioned to serve and to obey . . . . . in a jurisdiction like this, why is it so awful and suddenly disrespectful for these kind-hearted, trusting, docile people to be made suddenly aware of their condition ?

Why is it a "sh!t-for-brains" comment for an expat forum comment to state the case ?

For decades, this jurisdiction has made its bones and made its way on the backs of a population kept ignorant and

kept desperate as they queue up for their place as servile labour in the capital.

Is it going to be so hard to finally pay a fair wage here.

What kind of person objects to this subject coming up for discussion ??

Relax, Tecknikall, because of the class and the "educational advantages" you enjoy there are no telltale transliterative "tells" in your comment. And NO. It's not that I just don't "get" your culture.

It's your mindset that spills the beans here ;-)

It's pretty clear who and what you are.

"Nonsense signature line removed by moderator"

Edited February 14, 2014 by metisdead
Nonsense signature line removed by moderator

[rogerdee123]

well it would seem that if the Labour Ministry endorsed the human trafficking company's website then the ladies have a case against the Labour Ministry .... hmmmmm .... now who could the current Labour Minister be I wonder .... ..... Chalerm himself. His sons are probably on the Board of Director's of the company.

[recycler]

Greed and stupidity go hand in hand....

[marko kok prong]

No oil paintings are they!

[sms747]

Out of respect for the two ladies in such serious trouble, the moderators should delete the comments thread and keep it as a closed topic.

I thought criticising the mods was a serious breach of the rules?. These women were greedy fools, not a big deal.

[MDS]

The Thai and SA Government should have an agreement that Thai Nationals need to obtain a visa prior to leaving Thailand for SA.

I know it will be an inconvenience for business people but it will stop 90% of the girls coming to SA to work illegally in 'Spas' and bars.

Most of the girls who come to SA know full well what they are coming to do but they are not aware of the conditions they will work in or of the 'contracts' that they will need to repay before they start to make any money for themselves.

The girls in this story who had to repay Baht 80,000 are lucky. Most of them get stuck with having to repay three times that amount.

Once the girls have repaid the contract, which takes anything from 3 months to a year, they are left to find a place to work on their own but the visa renewals that have been put in their passports and generally fakes so when the police catch them they are put in prison until such time as the Thai government pays for them to be repatriated.

[Ricardo]

The old taking the passport trick.

It's called theft, report it to the police. If you can't be assed to take such simple action then your 'slavery' is self-imposed.

Depends where you are, I suspect.

When I was working in North Yemen, my local-employers would take my passport 'for safe-keeping & to show to the security-police', and return it to me just-in-time for my occasional holidays out-of-territory.

But they didn't know about my second-passport, kept with my petrol & hard-currency reserve, in case war broke out & I had to make a run for it.

However to expect naive Thai workers, whether massaging in South Africa or picking lingonberries in Finland, to understand how the world works is a very big 'ask'.

I feel sorry for this hard-working ordinary people, who are tricked by smooth-talking intermediaries, into paying up-front for opportunities which were never real.

[Dogmatix]

"But when Pawinee saw the contract that she had to sign with the company, she learned that it was all written in English..."

So which of South Africa's official languages would she have preferred it to be all written in - Xhosa?

[Dogmatix]

Ex SA, you must be pretty new here then, as your comment above sounds pretty much like Thailand. A friends sister went over there (SA) to do the same thing and in less then two years has permanent residency without marrying anyone! Try doing that here!

Well I for one is going to question this, as for PR in SA, you either qualify up front for PR on a points system before your arrive, or by the route you have suggested, but you need to be "resident" and working there there and paying tax for at least 3 years...

Are there fake PR certificates running around in SA, you bet your life there are, as well illegally issued PP's...this is why in some cases it takes upto 9 months to get a SA PP issued these days, and some countries such as the UK, now require SA PP holders to apply for a visa before flying the UK..... corruption there is almost as rampant in goverment as in Thailand.

with your reference to Thailand, same same 3 years working and paying tax and you can apply for PR in Thailand, so yes you can do the same thing in Thailand...

My sister is married to a South African and has been waiting for PR for a couple of years. Sounds like quite a bureaucratic process but at least there is a way to get it without working. She reckons she can get citizenship after that, if she has the patience. Her husband got the citizenship in his 60s due to birth in SA to a South African mother, although he had not lived there since the age of 5. It took him about 2 years.

[Soutpeel]

Ex SA, you must be pretty new here then, as your comment above sounds pretty much like Thailand. A friends sister went over there (SA) to do the same thing and in less then two years has permanent residency without marrying anyone! Try doing that here!

Well I for one is going to question this, as for PR in SA, you either qualify up front for PR on a points system before your arrive, or by the route you have suggested, but you need to be "resident" and working there there and paying tax for at least 3 years...

Are there fake PR certificates running around in SA, you bet your life there are, as well illegally issued PP's...this is why in some cases it takes upto 9 months to get a SA PP issued these days, and some countries such as the UK, now require SA PP holders to apply for a visa before flying the UK..... corruption there is almost as rampant in goverment as in Thailand.

with your reference to Thailand, same same 3 years working and paying tax and you can apply for PR in Thailand, so yes you can do the same thing in Thailand...

My sister is married to a South African and has been waiting for PR for a couple of years. Sounds like quite a bureaucratic process but at least there is a way to get it without working. She reckons she can get citizenship after that, if she has the patience. Her husband got the citizenship in his 60s due to birth in SA to a South African mother, although he had not lived there since the age of 5. It took him about 2 years.

Getting the PR is the hardest part, if your not pre-approved up front, if memory serves, it used to be 3 years as PR and at year 5 on PR you could apply for citizenship and get your PP.

From what I understand the delays in the bureacratic process are to do with all the fraud thats going on in the goverment departments, as all kinds of fake PR certificates and dodgy passports where being handed out for price,so they really scrutinise applications, and of course its a govement department so they are completely inefficent as well.

To the poster who made the remark about getting PR in 2 years or less, pretty easy to check if the friends sister has a legimate PR, ask her to show you her green ID book all PR's and citizens have, this is the difficult document to get, it will have her ID number in it and her status, The sticker in a passport are easily faked, and if an immigration officer is suspect, they will ask for her ID book and run her ID number on the computer...

[Loles]

High wage in South-Africa ???????

The biggest problem is dumb and her sister dumber's IQ is around 15, together. They were so greedy they have got this soup.

Edited February 14, 2014 by Loles

[Dogmatix]

The DSI and the Labour Minister should be able to sort this out. They are a formidable team but maybe too busy at the moment.

[Soutpeel]

The DSI and the Labour Minister should be able to sort this out. They are a formidable team but maybe too busy at the moment.

I would strongly recommend the master of disguise take up this matter personally in SA and let him start making threats, one suspects it would be the last time anyone would hear from him..."do you know who I am"....bang bang......

[thongsuknork]

Please Let us Forget What They Have Done Let us Help Them or make a Message for future be cautious about working like this insulting is easy helping is hard i dont want to offened any one if we can help let us do some thing via Media

Let them come back home ,

Buddha Bless Them .

[MAJIC]

The old taking the passport trick.

It's called theft, report it to the police. If you can't be assed to take such simple action then your 'slavery' is self-imposed.

easy 4 u 2 say, some r born with gold spoon and some with no spoon n no skool. How to go to the police and then will the police help or make your problem bigger? will the embassy help? how 2 go 2 all these places when u hv language and money problem .. pls keep it real and understand that dis really is a wicked thing and my heart goes out to her and all the other women enslaved in what they fooled 2 think is a ministry operation n I pray to God that someone help

up2u

[Blindside]

This type of thing was exposed in the SA media years ago. It, the undercover footage, showed various low life talking about their operations.

Funny enough it was always some local scum bag partnered (in the business sense) with ....... you guessed it ......... a Thai national!

[lucifer666]

I once worked in Nigeria and i always had to smile at the ship berthed in front of ours. Part of it's call sign, consisted of the number 419. Think i have a picture somewhere.

[saroq]

Hmmm, giving traditional massage for 80,000 Baht a month in SA? Either they were greedy, dumb, or just willing to take a chance. Or, they knew exactly what was happening and when they got there decided they did not like it so are looking for a free ride home.

to put it in perspective the average national salary in SA is around USD 1500/m, and they were offered around USD 2400/m

so just on that basis alone, you can see the problem with this picture.

And these ladies were expected to know about SA average wages how exactly? Regardless, they entered into a contract that was not adhered to. They were kept as virtual slaves and you're blaming the victims! Naive they may be but to suggest that they were to blame for being exploited is cold hearted and reduces the culpability of the people who exploited them.

[Colabamumbai]

Am a Canadian teaching and living here. Last year I get an email offering me a job teaching a Chinese doctors children, in England. The high salary made me suspicious. He had not yet asked me for a fee, he was taking it slow, said he was drawing up a contract.

I did some checking, googled the address where I would be living with the doctor, did a telephone number search for the corresponding address, no one by that name living there. Called the number I was given and listened to a black man try to talk so fast to disguise the fact he was not Chinese.

I found the real doctor, working at a university in England and notified him of his identity theft and he said he would go to the British Police.

It can happen to anyone.

[Soutpeel]

Hmmm, giving traditional massage for 80,000 Baht a month in SA? Either they were greedy, dumb, or just willing to take a chance. Or, they knew exactly what was happening and when they got there decided they did not like it so are looking for a free ride home.

to put it in perspective the average national salary in SA is around USD 1500/m, and they were offered around USD 2400/m

so just on that basis alone, you can see the problem with this picture.

And these ladies were expected to know about SA average wages how exactly? Regardless, they entered into a contract that was not adhered to. They were kept as virtual slaves and you're blaming the victims! Naive they may be but to suggest that they were to blame for being exploited is cold hearted and reduces the culpability of the people who exploited them.

where in my post did I suggest or say they should have known what the average salary was ? and where I am blaming the victims and being cold hearted ?

Your reading things into my post which are not there.