Activists push for moves to end begging

[Lite Beer]

SPECIAL REPORT
Activists push for moves to end begging
Kawintra Jaisue,
Pantipa Jitrawutthiporn
The Sunday Nation

BANGKOK: -- While the Social Development and Human Security Ministry says it wants to end human trafficking in a year, a social advocate has warned that the nefarious practice - often associated with luring women and girls into sex work - has expanded to street beggars, forced or otherwise.

In Khon Kaen province, 80 per cent of beggars are from Cambodia and Laos, said Vitanapat Ratanavaleepong, head of the Mirror Foundation's campaign against the child beggar business.

There were also cases of elderly and sick people - including leprosy sufferers - resorting to begging for money on street, he said. Despite mutual benefits and consent of the beggars, the act of begging and being delivered to various locations to beg is defined as human trafficking, he said.

Vitanapat said Mirror staff couldn't get information out of the beggars they talked to about how much they had to pay for their transport because they were willing to pay the fee. Some parents took their kids to beg on the street, claiming the kids were willing, he said.

He cited complaints to the foundation that some kids didn't go to school because their parents took them to beg, saying Khon Kaen Children's Home officials had placed some these kids under the care of the state.

"Efforts to solve this problem went nowhere because they didn't tackle the root of problem," he said. "Related agencies crack down on beggars once a month but the problem persists because human trafficking stems from various factors including poverty, unemployment, broken families."

As a short-term solution, he said, the government should prohibit child beggars, register migrant workers, work with neighbouring countries for solutions, and intercept gangs as they move in and out of the country.

If all the relevant parties seriously join in the efforts, they could change the situation, he added.

A Khon Kaen Social Development and Human Security official, who asked not to be named, said there was no report of beggar gangs in the province. But the agency found that elderly people in a community and neighbouring provinces had hired trucks to beg on the streets. And since they did so willingly, officials were unsure whether it was human trafficking.

"They said they didn't have a financial problem and they got the monthly allowance for the elderly but they begged for money because of the good income - up to Bt1,000 a day," the official said, adding that elderly people who were arrested would be sent to a shelter where relatives would pick them up, but they returned to begging.

Nong Khai Immigration Police deputy superintendent Lt-Colonel Wichien Leepairojkul said human trafficking involved three groups: Laotian agents who lured poor girls with the prospect of job; Thai agents who "bought" girls from neighbouring countries for prostitution; and karaoke bars in Nong Khai and nearby provinces.

"What's worrying is the girls are willing to join the sex trade," he said. "This issue stems from materialism as the families want to have a car and house like their neighbours who were in the sex trade."

Deputy head of the Children, Juveniles and Women Division Pol Colonel Noppawat Arayangura said police started a seven-day operation to talk with beggars last Tuesday. He said the information would be analysed and the division would proceed accordingly. If there were human trafficking cases, police would arrest and deport the people.

Noppawat said migrant beggars mostly brought young children to beg with them to induce sympathy. These kids were rented or kidnapped and the adult beggars knew their way around illegal activities.

He urged the public to alert police via the 1191 hotline when they see beggars, children forced to sell flowers in restaurants, or prostitutes. He said that tourist sites like Pattaya were places where foreign women and lady boys worked in prostitution - forced or otherwise.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Activists-push-for-moves-to-end-begging-30245765.html

-- The Nation 2014-10-19

[The stuttering parrot]

As for girls joining the sex trade well starvation and poverty are a pretty good aphrodisiac .

As for the beggars flower sellers shoe shiners elephant touts etc everybody knows where they including the BIB so all they gave to do is make the effort to clean it up.

But there is that pesky corruption thingy from preventing any of this happening.

[BSJ]

Nothing will change whilst corruption is rampant.

[Local Drunk]

As for girls joining the sex trade well starvation and poverty are a pretty good aphrodisiac .

As for the beggars flower sellers shoe shiners elephant touts etc everybody knows where they including the BIB so all they gave to do is make the effort to clean it up.

But there is that pesky corruption thingy from preventing any of this happening.

Yes, it's not as though they are trying hide it or anything.

[chainarong]

The question is how, you talk a lot but have you actually worked out how, all you will do is drive it underground further and it will move about that you won't know where it will turn up , like a clamp down on prostitution , is there departments set up to handle young people , to council parents of kids in poverty ,are their refuges for people to use, are you cracking down on crime attached to this type social blot or are you just about like chasing, harassing them out , like cleaning up the beaches and two months later its back to same, same. Verdict: same , same.

[ezzra]

Mobs of beggars are being brought from neighboring countries to bag on the streets of popular

tourist resorts,

they are facilitated, financed, frotected and guarded by local mafia mobsters, get rid of those and your

work is 99% done....

[ATF]

They should employ some of the beggars as beggar whippers.

They could roam the streets and give them a good whipping or caning.

Alternatively people who give money to beggars could be fined.

[MisterTee]

If prostitution is the oldest profession, begging is the second oldest.

Nobody's gonna stop it.

[JohnThailandJohn]

No problem with begging except for those who are exploited into doing it for the benefit of somebody else. That and the beggars laying in the middle of the sidewalk, no reason to block the walkway even if you are legless. But adults should have the right to beg or be prostitutes if they choose this path in life as long as they are not interfering with others. Frankly I find it sad governments can control the freedom of people to choose how they earn an income to this extent. I find it more annoying walking by shops with salespeople engaging me verbally to buy than walking by a beggar with a cup or a lady dressed sexy smiling at me.

[gsinter]

Since they cracked down on beggars outside of Bangkok a few days ago, I noticed here in central Bangkok

the beggars are increasing, mostly never seen faces, it seems they are simply shifting their location.

[Searat7]

The ones I am curious about are the students in their school uniforms playing musical instruments for money. I often wonder what circumstances prompt them to do this.,,.maybe some need to help family and others want money for a cell phone.

[bangkokfrog]

"He urged the public to alert police via the 1191 hotline when they see beggars, children forced to sell flowers in restaurants, or prostitutes. "

I don't mind the first two, but call 1191 every time you see a prostitute? Do they have enough people manning the phones?

[marcusd]

So many things here illegal but the Police ride on by.

So many things here just so wrong as CHILDREN WANT TO do it

So many things wrong here as parents sending their children. Where is the love? Take the children away and sterilise the parents!

But as usual we are the only ones who care, the only ones who do anything and the only ones who pay for anything.

Thailand and most other Asian nations are full of hot air and bull dust! Nothing will change except the venue of the next meeting

[Soiyamoto]

They'd have a field day in pattaya. Same beggars double shifts everyday, afternoon on beach and bars at night.. The kids selling flowers untill after 3am looking so tired they dont get education as their cambodian. Their guardian watching over them scolding them if they dont get a sale, i new trick at mo is the smallest girl goes into the bar crying and with a bunch of roses the farang take pity and give her 20bt or more then she does the same in next bar, police do nothing

[Thai at Heart]

Where is thia flood of foreign beggars in isaan.

In nearly 18 years there, I can basically remember seeing no beggars in isaan at all. Lots of poor people , but no one begging

[Soiyamoto]

Khon kaen has the odd beggar in the markets as has chayapum

[UDONJIM]

Quite a few in central Udon Thani.

[Time Traveller]

If people stopped giving them money, begging would end. No need for a law against it.