Universal Declaration of Human Rights A female victim of trafficking from Lomsak district, Petchaboon province Voice “She worked tirelessly to ensure that women would not continue to fall victim to human trafficking” In a recorded interview conducted by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security in 2006, a Thai woman who had travelled abroad in the hope of finding employment recounts her story. The woman, the mother of three children, had decided to go to another country to find her fortune. Instead, she says that she became a victim of slavery and was forced into sex work. Her story has been publicized in recent years and has successfully raised the awareness of many Thai people about the terrible nature of modern-day human trafficking. In the late 1990’s, this woman was living in poverty but needed to support her family, including her husband, a person with a disability, and their three children, when she heard about a job opportunity in another country. She explains that her good intentions were exploited by an illegal employment agency that charged her a fee of 40,000 Thai baht. Instead of finding her a good job, the agency delivered her into the hands of a sex worker gang. She reports that she was brought to a squalid apartment, told that she had been purchased and that if she wanted to leave, she would need to reimburse the payment made for her purchase. She was 32 years old, had been sold and now apparently “owed” a large amount of money, and was forced to endure vicious beatings, she explains. She eventually met a Thai man working in that country, who agreed to help her escape. She later became quite ill and in October 2005, upon learning that she had cancer, she returned to Thailand to spend the remainder of her days with her family. Until her death, she worked tirelessly to ensure that women would not continue to fall victim to human trafficking. She worked with the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security and the Child Protection Development Foundation to carry out awareness campaigns against human trafficking. She died when she was 38 years old, on 19 May 2006. Both her story and her considerable efforts are a stark reminder that much remains to be done to combat human trafficking and slavery, especially in terms of implementing preventative measures. 22 Dignity and Justice for All of Us