Most Of The Child Beggars In Bangkok Are Illegally Smuggled In From Cambodia

[Jai Dee]

Most of the child beggars in Bangkok are illegally smuggled in from Cambodia

The Mirror Art Foundation discloses that child beggars in Bangkok can make up to 1,000 baht a day if they are disabled.

The foundation, campaigning against child exploitation, said most of the child beggars have been trafficked in from Cambodia and forced by traffickers to make money for them.

These child aliens, as well as Thai children, can be found begging in areas such as Pratunam, Hua Lampoang, the Mall Ngam-wongwan Department Store, Rangsit, BTS On-nuj and Nana stations and Central Pinklao Department Store, it said.

The foundation said the child beggars can be as young as four months old. Normal children usually earn 300 baht a day but those who are disabled can make up to 1,000 baht daily.

The foundation said authorities should tighten checks at the border to prevent traffickers bringing in children from neigbouring countries.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 25 July 2006

[Scott]

Those that are earning up to 1,000 Baht a day need to be paying income tax!

[Khun Jean]

Enforcing is easy. All excuses!

Have some police in civilian clothes do the rounds and in 1 day a big part of the problem is solved.

Time for a "crack down'.

[tourleadersi]

Enforcing is easy. All excuses!

Have some police in civilian clothes do the rounds and in 1 day a big part of the problem is solved.

Time for a "crack down'.

True, but picking up the kids won't solve the problem, there will only be other poor souls there the next day. What they need to do is stake them out and catch their controllers. A couple of car battery shocks later and you have their lords and masters....

Maybe I've been watching too much '24' lately and want to get all 'Jack Bauer' on them, but these bounders are forcing kids to beg off of unsuspecting people. Only the scoundrels are coming out of it ahead.

[SamuiJens]

Ja, get the ones behind it, the trafficers and give them the shock treatment to talk. Kids are kids and in your mind ,it's out of sight, out of mind, instead of helping the kids, not giving them Bahts!

[Khun Jean]

The children would have to be very visible and on high traffic locations to be able to make enough money to be interesting for the exploiters.

Take away the children and do that not only one time but every time and the message will be clear.

Make sure the children are taken care of. I think that is the highest priority and the most effective on the short term.

Meanwhile taking care it will not happen again of course by tracking them down. Making the border more secure is not really possible i think. The hundreds of kilometers of border can be easily crossed illegaly.

[Charma]

I remember when I first went to Thailand that I used to give money to these kids. Now I know that my misplaced sympathy was just creating more exploitation and I NEVER give to children in this way. My wife once told me that she had heard that some foreign beggars had actually intentionally disabled their (or other peoples) children in order to earn more money. At the time I just could not believe such a thing was possible, but now I am not so sure.

[astral]

Have some police in civilian clothes do the rounds...........

They are probably going round already, for tea money.

Why stop a good thing when you don't have to.

[Chang_paarp]

Enforcing is easy. All excuses!

Have some police in civilian clothes do the rounds and in 1 day a big part of the problem is solved.

Time for a "crack down'.

Wot!!!

Get out of the form fitting uiform????????

I don't see many volunteers for this.

[Crushdepth]

The Mirror Art Foundation discloses that child beggars in Bangkok can make up to 1,000 baht a day if they are disabled.

Yeah and they get to keep it too...NOT. Who do you think it is that bloody imports them?

[Lacoste]

Not exactly news.

[kmart]

Yep, not exactly new news, but they don't ever go away, do they?

They do occasionally have a "round-up", but just release them somewhere else, like illegal Pangolins or something.

There is always some wonderful "influential person" behind it all.

[The Coder]

They could try something real simple: put up signs in English and Thai at the most lucrative begging places explaining why people shouldn't give money. Remember, when the giving stops, the begging can too.

[womble]

The children would have to be very visible and on high traffic locations to be able to make enough money to be interesting for the exploiters.

Take away the children and do that not only one time but every time and the message will be clear.

Make sure the children are taken care of. I think that is the highest priority and the most effective on the short term.

Meanwhile taking care it will not happen again of course by tracking them down. Making the border more secure is not really possible i think. The hundreds of kilometers of border can be easily crossed illegaly.

Totally agree, round up the kids everyday, they have to be visable to make money, so it's easy to spot. If you keep taking them away they are not earning money so transporting them and paying parents for them becomes a waste of money. The kids can be put in care and the parents punished, I don't care how poor you are, those that exploit kids should be punished severely, the kids themselves will be much better in care than on street corners selling flowers.

And if people wanna know where the money should come from to care for the kids, how about cancelling the elite card scheme and surrakiarts ridiculous campaign for UN secretary general. The money wasted there could have been used on something useful such as this.

[tourleadersi]

What could be more demoralising then coming from a poor family, being forced to beg all day and then at the end of the day having to hand all of that oney over to some thug!? Oh my word, I don't believe things could get much more worse than that for a healthy person. My heart absolutely goes out to these poor mites.

[terry57]

What could be more demoralising then coming from a poor family, being forced to beg all day and then at the end of the day having to hand all of that oney over to some thug!? Oh my word, I don't believe things could get much more worse than that for a healthy person. My heart absolutely goes out to these poor mites.

hello tour,

thats a nice thoughtfull and 100% true post you penned there.

but at the end of the day its the corrupt officials that turn a blind eye to the thugs that are maggoting

money of these poor kids and keep them in indentured labour that need to be sorted.

most shocking of all is, that once these kids grow to old or are no longer usefull to there master they are desposed of and if lucky escape with there life.

this situation can only occur when corruption is allowed to flourish and the big boss continues to get a cut from the masters who in turn live of the earning of street urchins.

thailand must address this horrific situation once and for all.

ps its good to be back tour.

cheers

[tourleadersi]

What could be more demoralising then coming from a poor family, being forced to beg all day and then at the end of the day having to hand all of that oney over to some thug!? Oh my word, I don't believe things could get much more worse than that for a healthy person. My heart absolutely goes out to these poor mites.

hello tour,

thats a nice thoughtfull and 100% true post you penned there.

but at the end of the day its the corrupt officials that turn a blind eye to the thugs that are maggoting

money of these poor kids and keep them in indentured labour that need to be sorted.

most shocking of all is, that once these kids grow to old or are no longer usefull to there master they are desposed of and if lucky escape with there life.

this situation can only occur when corruption is allowed to flourish and the big boss continues to get a cut from the masters who in turn live of the earning of street urchins.

thailand must address this horrific situation once and for all.

ps its good to be back tour.

cheers

Good to have you back fella. Beers soon right?

[Thai-Aust]

This issue is not just a corrupt cops, it is about mafia gangs, very powerful and deadly. These child beggars will not simply disappear only because cops doing their rounds. This problem is pretty much like sex business where young women have been bought from Isaan/Norh provinces and forced to work in the bars/brothels. The difference is it’s children who had been bought/stolen. This problem has been around for more than 20 years.

[terry57]

This issue is not just a corrupt cops, it is about mafia gangs, very powerful and deadly. These child beggars will not simply disappear only because cops doing their rounds. This problem is pretty much like sex business where young women have been bought from Isaan/Norh provinces and forced to work in the bars/brothels. The difference is it’s children who had been bought/stolen. This problem has been around for more than 20 years.

yes thai, you are absolutly correct,

its about all the other factors you mention and this problem has been around for millinium in asia.

my point being that the thai officials (goverment) are not doing enough to combat this problem but there having a good go at stamping out peadophilia.

we know it still occurs but the sick and twisted individuals that play this game run scared and know they will end up in big tiger if caught out.

why do the thai government allow these poor children to be seen on the streets and not afforded the correct protection that all children deserve, as its there birth right ?

thailand is an advancing nation and there is no need for this situation to be conducted at such a public level.

the thai girls do have a chance of escape from constricted prostitution as they can take there chances going to the authority's as they are mature adults.

a child cannot as he is immature and only knows what he is taught or has beaten into him and in this case its indentured slave'ry of the worst kind.

i know we cannot compare thailand to europe and its value's, but it nearly unheard off there as this practice was killed off many many years ago.

if thailand wish's to be seen as a civilised country it must act quickly to kill this trade.

cheers

[terry57]

What could be more demoralising then coming from a poor family, being forced to beg all day and then at the end of the day having to hand all of that oney over to some thug!? Oh my word, I don't believe things could get much more worse than that for a healthy person. My heart absolutely goes out to these poor mites.

hello tour,

thats a nice thoughtfull and 100% true post you penned there.

but at the end of the day its the corrupt officials that turn a blind eye to the thugs that are maggoting

money of these poor kids and keep them in indentured labour that need to be sorted.

most shocking of all is, that once these kids grow to old or are no longer usefull to there master they are desposed of and if lucky escape with there life.

this situation can only occur when corruption is allowed to flourish and the big boss continues to get a cut from the masters who in turn live of the earning of street urchins.

thailand must address this horrific situation once and for all.

ps its good to be back tour.

cheers

Good to have you back fella. Beers soon right?

im heading your way very shortly