Ubon Ratchathani police raid karaoke bars, rescue 44 Lao women

[FangFerang]

The women were not rescued, they were arrested. Worse, they will get a work permit ban. Now they cannot work here at all.

Last round of this awhile back, some Laos women were locked in a Bangkok room and repeatedly raped after being promised work permits and real jobs. The women escaped and were found walking half naked down a road by police weeping, and what did they do? They arrested them and deported them immediately.

They heard two Burmese talked about being enslaved for peeling shrimp in slave conditions this week. What did they do? They arrested them and fined them over 100k baht each, so they will never get out of jail and serve as examples to the other slaves to work or die, it just doesn't matter, but don't you dare speak to anyone.

These foreign workers, these human beings, are used, abused, and confused.... so the Thai authorities put them all in cages, send some home and shout with great indignity "Never come back! You are ruining my country!"

No one is laughing at this jester called justice here. No one.

[sanukjim]

Actually a good move by the operator to keep a record of the bribes and who he's paying, obviously he was paying the wrong people or fell out with who he was paying....i go down you come with me.

The Laos will be fined and at immigration jail for overstay and the operator will pay a fine.End of story

[luckyman]

>It was reported that 14 of the women who appear to be less than 18 year-old were separated from the rest and sent to Sappasitprasong hospital to determine their exact ages.

Can a physician determine the exact age of someone? How? afaik it is technically/biologically not possible. BTW we have the debate here in germany right now, as thousands of minors from afghanistan and syria enter our country, refusing to tell their age (or don't know it for real).

i am guessing using dental analysis perhaps?

here is another one, using a mri test:

https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1kpq7b/is_there_any_way_to_determine_the_age_of_a_person/

[Wilsonandson]

I went to Lao the other week and apart from the cold weather I did notice a few travellers at the hotel were frequented by ladies of the night. Petite sized ladies riding scooters. Then later in the night when the bars closed I went to a night club. In there were lots of midget sized ladies chatting up the revellers. It was quite an unusual sight, all rather perculiar. A chapter out of tales of the unexpected. If your on your way to Lao go check these places out. I thought I'd seen everything but obviously not. Not one lady was over 5ft tall. Wow. The land of midgets.

[tomacht8]

...The raiding party has found notes at one of the bars showing bribes being paid by the operator to several officials in Khong Chiam district, ..

Really?
I thought they getting free rides.

[uptheos]

He warned that operators of the karaoke bars which hired under aged Lao women could face charges of human trafficking and liable to heavier punishment.

Note the word could

[Ks45672]

Wonder how many of the cops had visited this place as customers before they had to visit for work reasons

[anotheruser]

judging from the picture it doesn't appear they were rescued from anything. Captured is probably more like it.

[khunPer]

>It was reported that 14 of the women who appear to be less than 18 year-old were separated from the rest and sent to Sappasitprasong hospital to determine their exact ages.

Can a physician determine the exact age of someone? How? afaik it is technically/biologically not possible. BTW we have the debate here in germany right now, as thousands of minors from afghanistan and syria enter our country, refusing to tell their age (or don't know it for real).

They have that discussion at the moment in several North European countries, I believe, in the Danish news it's stated by physicians doing the examinations, that the result is +/- 2 to 2½ year...

[Thongkorn]

>It was reported that 14 of the women who appear to be less than 18 year-old were separated from the rest and sent to Sappasitprasong hospital to determine their exact ages.

Can a physician determine the exact age of someone? How? afaik it is technically/biologically not possible. BTW we have the debate here in germany right now, as thousands of minors from afghanistan and syria enter our country, refusing to tell their age (or don't know it for real).

Age can be estimated with a dental exam.

they can also tell by pelvic size,

[berybert]

I'm reluctant to call out the locals for every tiny thing as many do, but Udon is hardly a farang magnet.

Yet we get the 'blame' for supporting the murkier side of the sex trade all too often here.

If they decriminalised, and taxed and unionised, much of their problems, such as these stories, would be greatly reduced.

Sadly, I've seen girls in these rural karaoke bars that appear as young as 11 or 12. But yeah, they must be there to attract the occasional farang that stops by.

Sorry if I have you wrong here but are you saying these young girls are stocked just in case a farang comes by ?

There is no chance they are on stage every night for the pleasure of Thai people ?

Oh and did you report any of the bars you have seen these girls working in, or just stop by for a beers ?

[cyberfarang]

Quote: The raiding party has found notes at one of the bars showing bribes being paid by the operator to several officials in Khong Chiam district.

Thailand really needs to get it`s own house in order. It is a system that works against it`s self, a vicious circle where corruption Vs the written laws and why Thailand will always be considered as a backward nation.

[ratcatcher]

I'm reluctant to call out the locals for every tiny thing as many do, but Udon is hardly a farang magnet.

Yet we get the 'blame' for supporting the murkier side of the sex trade all too often here.

If they decriminalised, and taxed and unionised, much of their problems, such as these stories, would be greatly reduced.

"I'm reluctant to call out the locals for every tiny thing as many do, but Udon is hardly a farang magnet."

I would suggest that UDON THANI is a much bigger "farang magnet" than UBON RatchaTHANI but a place where Thai men themselves are responsible for supporting the "murkier" side of the sex trade.

Farangs tend to visit the more visible places in Thai towns.

[wow64]

The girls look so happy to be rescued.

Sent from my c64

[chrisinth]

I'm reluctant to call out the locals for every tiny thing as many do, but Udon is hardly a farang magnet.

Yet we get the 'blame' for supporting the murkier side of the sex trade all too often here.

If they decriminalised, and taxed and unionised, much of their problems, such as these stories, would be greatly reduced.

Sadly, I've seen girls in these rural karaoke bars that appear as young as 11 or 12. But yeah, they must be there to attract the occasional farang that stops by.

Sorry if I have you wrong here but are you saying these young girls are stocked just in case a farang comes by ?

There is no chance they are on stage every night for the pleasure of Thai people ?

Oh and did you report any of the bars you have seen these girls working in, or just stop by for a beers ?

I think (could be wrong here) you missed the sarcasm from eldragon in his post.....

[eldragon]

I'm reluctant to call out the locals for every tiny thing as many do, but Udon is hardly a farang magnet.

Yet we get the 'blame' for supporting the murkier side of the sex trade all too often here.

If they decriminalised, and taxed and unionised, much of their problems, such as these stories, would be greatly reduced.

Sadly, I've seen girls in these rural karaoke bars that appear as young as 11 or 12. But yeah, they must be there to attract the occasional farang that stops by.

Sorry if I have you wrong here but are you saying these young girls are stocked just in case a farang comes by ?

There is no chance they are on stage every night for the pleasure of Thai people ?

Oh and did you report any of the bars you have seen these girls working in, or just stop by for a beers ?

Sarcastic comment. Those girls are there for the locals. Sadly, reporting illegal activity is a good way to get killed in this country. I'm sure at least 100 different Thais enter those bars every week. If the police can't figure out those girls are in there then it only means they're being paid well.

[SantiSuk]

I'm reluctant to call out the locals for every tiny thing as many do, but Udon is hardly a farang magnet.

Yet we get the 'blame' for supporting the murkier side of the sex trade all too often here.

If they decriminalised, and taxed and unionised, much of their problems, such as these stories, would be greatly reduced.

Not Udon and I don't agree that "we get the blame ..." for prostitution in Thailand (except perhaps in Pattaya). You are right though that Ubon (both province, as here and town) is not a magnet for farang buyers of sex-worker services. Mostly locals and Thai tourists I would guess at the bars in Khong Jiam and Chong Mek. There seem to be an unusually large number of establishments for such small towns.

[eldragon]

I'm reluctant to call out the locals for every tiny thing as many do, but Udon is hardly a farang magnet.

Yet we get the 'blame' for supporting the murkier side of the sex trade all too often here.

If they decriminalised, and taxed and unionised, much of their problems, such as these stories, would be greatly reduced.

Not Udon and I don't agree that "we get the blame ..." for prostitution in Thailand (except perhaps in Pattaya). You are right though that Ubon (both province, as here and town) is not a magnet for farang buyers of sex-worker services. Mostly locals and Thai tourists I would guess at the bars in Khong Jiam and Chong Mek. There seem to be an unusually large number of establishments for such small towns.

Udon, and there are a lot of foreigners married to Thai girls up there. NYT or one of the big western papers did a piece on it a couple years ago. There's a fairly well known area with a bunch of beer bars. Dream Park or something like that. I met a girl up there once. Met me at a club after work. Came back to the room and started chatting with some older guy while I was laying on the bed. Said she used to have big money and lost it all. He was her new job I guess. Anyway, didn't seem like she was very unique up there. Edited December 19, 2015 by eldragon

[manarak]

I wonder how many wanted to be rescued?

Actually, the Thai PBS story linked in the OP doesn't contain the word "rescued".

This promted me to wonder where that wording came from and also got me worried about political spin being added to news when they are re-posted here.

There is an English language news story posted on NNT which says the 44 women have been rescued:

http://thainews.prd.go.th/website_en/news/news_detail/WNOHT5812170010002

But I think that article is rubbish, no precise information given and the rewriter took some shortcuts in pretending all 44 women were rescued when in fact 14 are suspected to be underage victims of human trafficking, whereas their age remains to be proven.

Then I wondered what the Thais say in Thai language about the matter, and I tried to find the Thai language version of the same news story.

But inspite of a very thorough search, I could not find any similar news story on NNT...

Makes me wonder why they publish news in English without an equivalent story in Thai language ?

Google finally found a detailed source article in manager.co.th

http://www.manager.co.th/Local/ViewNews.aspx?NewsID=9580000138339

This article is correct and says - as far as I understood - that from the 44 women, 14 are suspected to be underage victims of human trafficking.

But the details of this story aren't really relevant - my concern is that news reporting should just re-post the news without any political spin added.

The political bias is that such a title implies all prostitutes are victims and takes away free will from persons choosing prostitution as a job.

It is a position commonly shared by "abolitionist" politicians and NGOs of that political orientation.

The issue is comparable with calling medical doctors performing abortions "murderers".

It reflects a political position.

And I would like to add that not all NGO are "abolitionist".

Amnesty International for example campaigns for legal prostitution around the world:

http://www.marieclaire.com/politics/news/a15277/prostitution-legal-sex-work-amnesty-international/

Amnesty International Wants Prostitution to Be Legal Around the World, Says It's a Human Right

So I think extra care should be taken when modifying or writing titles for the news stories, so that the news remain politically neutral.

Edited December 21, 2015 by manarak