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Nam Pran Police Station or another case, which is under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons
Division for human trafficking offense. Both cases were of exploitation of forced labor or
services. In the one case, the victim is a girl of Cambodian nationality whose offender is not a
Thai person. Investigation Officers are of the opinion that both cases should be filed and are
currently underway.
On the use of forced labor, the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, B.E. 2551 (2008) and
the Emergency Decree Amending the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act B.E. 2551 (2008), B.E.
2562 (2019), define the nature of the elements, form, method of the offense as any of the
following actions: (1) causing fear of danger to life, body, liberty, reputation or property of that
person or that of others; (2) threats by any means; (3) using force; (4) confiscating the identity
documents of that person; (5) unlawfully binding that person's or others' debt burden, and (6)
using any other means similar to the aforementioned act.
The investigation, further, revealed that the problems in 2020 were more severe than
forced or service labor but were of human trafficking nature. According to the Ministry of
Social Development and Human Security, the Ministry assisted six victims of human
trafficking in the form labor exploitation in fisheries. The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division
has also stated that one of the cases involved eight victims between the aged of 22 to 34 years.
However, the offenses were committed by fishing boats of other nationality and the offender
was not of Thai nationality.
On other forms of offence commitment, it was found that in the case of seizing identity
documents of fishermen, including in 2020, no case appeared to have been brought to justice.
Nevertheless, from listening to the facts of migrant workers, it still appears that employers,
both the owner of the fishing boat and the captain of the ship, seized or kept employee’s identity
documents, regardless of whether the employee consented or not, and in most cases the
employee had no choice but to submit their documentation This also includes financial
documents such as bank books, cash cards, and personal information about migrant workers'
financial transactions. In addition, the problem of seizing or retaining identity documents of
employees also affects the use of freedom of movement for migrant workers. This is because
employees must seek for permission to obtain their identity documents when traveling to
different areas.
ILO’s Special Action Program to Combat Forced Labor (SAP-FL) developed a “Forced
Labor Indicators” based on the definition of “Forced Labor”. With this indicator for forced