Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the
hands of traffickers Published reports & articles from 2000 to 2025 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Laos.htm
Laos is primarily a
source country for women and girls trafficked primarily to Thailand for the
purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor as domestic or
factory workers. Some Lao men, women, and children migrate to neighboring
countries in search of better economic opportunities but are subjected to
conditions of forced or bonded labor or forced prostitution after their
arrival. - U.S. State Dept
Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009 Check
out a later country report here and possibly a full TIP Report here |
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CAUTION: The following
links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Laos. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No attempt has been made to verify their
authenticity or to validate their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspects of Human Trafficking are of particular
interest to you. Would you like to
write about Forced-Labor? Debt
Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc. On the other
hand, you might choose to include precursors of trafficking such as poverty and hunger. There is a lot to
the subject of Trafficking. Scan other
countries as well. Draw comparisons
between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. HELP for Victims AFESIP ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Powell Cites
Exploitation In 10 Nations Associated Press AP,
June 15, 2004 www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41729-2004Jun14.html [accessed 17
February 2011] Khan was 11 years
old when she was kidnapped from her home in the hill country of Laos. She was
taken to an embroidery factory in Thailand, and with dozens of other children
was made to work 14 hours a day for food and clothing. They received no
wages. ***
ARCHIVES *** 10 Facts About
Human Trafficking In Laos Ariana Kiessling, The Borgen Project,
23 October 2019 borgenproject.org/10-facts-about-human-trafficking-in-laos/ [accessed 23
February 2021] SEX TRAFFICKING AND
FORCED LABOR
-- The commercial sex trade and forced labor situations are the two most
common types of human trafficking that Laotians face. Since young females are
the main people migrating from Laos, traffickers often take them to countries
like China to sell them as brides. Others receive false promises of high
paying jobs but end up trapped in slave work. 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Laos U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/laos/
[accessed 14 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Due to limited
numbers of inspectors, among other factors, the government did not
effectively enforce the law. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT There were reports
of commercial sexual exploitation of children (see section 6, Children). Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/laos/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 8 July
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS ENJOY
EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Trafficking in
persons, especially to Thailand, is common, and enforcement of antitrafficking measures is hindered by a lack of transparency
and weak rule of law. The building of new roads through Laos in recent years
has aided trafficking operations. Children as young
as 12 years old may be legally employed in Laos. Inspections of workplaces,
including those for industries considered hazardous, are required by law but
do not take place regularly. Laos reports 970
victims of human trafficking Xinhua News Agency,
September 20, 2007 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 7
September 2011] Laos has detected
970 victims of human trafficking, including 835 aged under 18, since 2001,
Lao newspaper Vientiane reported Thursday. Human trafficking
helps spread HIV/AIDS in Asia: UN Ranga Sirilal,
Reuters, Colombo, Aug 22, 2007 www.reuters.com/article/idUSL22325220070822 [accessed 17
February 2011] "Trafficking
... contributes to the spread of HIV by significantly increasing the
vulnerability of trafficked persons to infection," said Caitlin Wiesen-Antin, HIV/AIDS regional coordinator, Asia and
Pacific, for the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP). "Both human trafficking
and HIV greatly threaten human development and security." Major human
trafficking routes run between Nepal and India and between Thailand and
neighbors like Laos, Cambodia and
Myanmar. Many of the victims are young teenage girls who end up in
prostitution. "The link between
human trafficking and HIV/AIDS has only been identified fairly
recently," Wiesen-Antin told the International
Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific. The ins and outs of
leaving Laos Clifford McCoy, Asia
Times Online, Vientiane, Aug 11, 2007 www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/IH11Ae01.html [accessed 17
February 2011] Local trafficking
networks inside Laos are still mostly unorganized and informally run. Much of
the trade consists of informal networks, often family members, friends or
fellow villagers who have gone abroad to work before and have maintained
connections. On this level, the arrangement of employment is done
individually, often as a personal business. Once across the border in
Thailand, however, the human-trafficking connections are very structured and
well organized. The family members
or friends who say they can arrange employment are often tied into these
networks, even if they are not formal members themselves. Once they have
persuaded a Lao to seek work abroad, that person, often a young woman or
under-age girl, is literally sold to the network, with the broker receiving a
finder's fee. Lao men are sometimes
forced to serve on fishing trawlers, where they work long hours in deplorable
conditions, sometimes not being allowed to return to shore for months. Lao
women frequently find themselves sold to brothel or massage-parlor owners,
who often force them to service numerous customers each day to pay off their
broker fee, which in some instances takes years to repay fully. Mekong region govts to co-op against human trafficking Xinhua News Agency,
Phnom Penh, May 7, 2006 news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-05/07/content_4517342.htm [accessed 17
February 2011] en.ce.cn/World/Asia-Pacific/200605/07/t20060507_6891299.shtml [accessed 4 February
2018] Since the signing of
the historic COMMIT Memorandum of Understanding in Yangon, Myanmar in October
2004, by Ministers of the six countries, the Governments have been active in
laying the foundation for a network of cooperation to stop traffickers and
prosecute them, protect victims of trafficking and assist them return safely
home, and launch efforts to prevent others from sharing the same fate. 47 Laotian women
rescued from Thai prostitution dens [DOC] Associated Press AP,
Bangkok, Feb 02, 2006 www.no-trafficking.org/content/Country_Pages_LaoPDR/laopdr_pdf/47
laotian women rescued from thai
prostitution dens2.doc [accessed 17
February 2011] [accessed 20
September 2016] Thai police on
Wednesday raided two karaoke bars in a province near Bangkok and rescued 47
women from neighboring Laos who
were forced to work as prostitutes, police said. The women rescued
from the bars in Chachoengsao province, 30
kilometers (19 miles) east of the capital, included eight girls under age 18,
said police Col. Kraibun Songsuat.
He said the bars' operators had kept the doors to the bars locked to keep the
women from escaping. Humans for Sale Cape Cod Times,
February 9, 2004 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 7
September 2011] In one example of
forced labor, a 14-year-old boy from Laos was sold to an embroidery factory
in Thailand, where he was forced to work long hours for no wages. "If
any of the children acted up, the factory owner would lock them in a small
room and dump industrial chemicals on them," Miller said. Christians
Persecuted in Laos U.S. Newswire,
Vientiane, April 26, 2004 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 7
September 2011] CHRISTIANS SENTENCED
TO FORCED LABOR
- Christians in Laos are routinely arrested and placed in forced labor camps
to work in rice fields. Sometimes all Christians in a village are arrested at
the same time and are forced to work in the rice fields for four to five
months without pay. Millions Suffer in
Sex Slavery United Press
International UPI, Chicago, April 24, 2001 humanrightscivics1.wikifoundry.com/page/Sex+Slaves [accessed 7
September 2014] Statistical
estimates indicate 300,000 women have been sold into the sex trade in Western
Europe in the last 10 years, and since 1990, 80,000 women and children from
Myanmar (formerly Burma), Cambodia, Laos
and China have been sold into Thailand's sex industry. Crisis-hit Laos
wrestles with child-trafficking problem Kyodo News
International, Bangkok, Jan 26, 2000 www.thefreelibrary.com/Crisis-hit+Laos+wrestles+with+child-trafficking+problem.-a059332210 [accessed 17
February 2011] Trafficking of
children from Laos to Thailand for commercial labor and sexual exploitation
is increasing despite measures being taken to reverse the trend, according to
a Lao government report presented Wednesday at a U.N.-sponsored conference on
child rights in Southeast Asia. Best safety net for
a child is the family from a forum held on
September 29, 1998 at Justice Place in Brisbane Kasama Vol. 12 No. 4 /
October–November–December 1998 / Solidarity Philippines Australia Network
SPAN cpcabrisbane.org/Kasama/1998/V12n4/Ofelia.htm [accessed 17
February 2011] In Laos, very often
the boys are approached directly, lured with baits of free drugs, good times,
alcohol, ‘chicks’. But for girls there is a different modus operandi – the
parents are approached. They are told, "Somebody is looking for a
maid," or "A big mall is opening up in Bangkok and it needs 500
salesladies." One of the usual ways of approaching Asian children is
through labour, through promised jobs. New weapons against
child trafficking in Asia The Magazine Of The Ilo: World Of Work No. 19, March 1997 www.ageofconsent.com/comments/numberthirteen.htm [accessed 17
February 2011] www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/dwcms_080636.pdf [accessed 4 February
2018] [page 22] In Asia,
trafficking in children both between and within various countries is on the
increase. In recent years, large numbers of children from Cambodia, China,
Laos and Myanmar have been forced to work as prostitutes in Thailand. Both
girls and boys from poor rural areas are lured by professional recruiters and
traffickers with promises of legitimate jobs in Thailand's booming economy. Video Warns of
Human Traffickers' False Promises The Nation,
Thailand, Sept. 30, 2003 www.zoominfo.com/CachedPageMain?archive_id=0&page_id=558886399&page_url=//www.iabolish.com/news/press-coverage/2003/tn09-30-03.htm&page_last_updated=3/26/2004+8:13:37+PM [accessed 10 July
2013] He said the
majority of the young trafficking victims who saw the video said they had not
been aware of the risks and possible consequences associated with work
migration. Khammoune
Souphanthong, director of the Lao Social Welfare
Department, welcomed the video, saying it would be a useful tool in educating
Lao children on the dangers of trafficking. Local and Thai procurers lure Lao
boys and girls with false promises of well-paid jobs in Thailand, he said.
Many young Laotians were easy prey because they were attracted by the chance
of becoming "modernised" in the style of
role models seen on Thai television, he said. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 10 October 1997 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/laos1997.html [accessed 17
February 2011] [10] The Committee
is concerned at the insufficient attention paid by the State party to
systematic, comprehensive and disaggregated qualitative and quantitative data
collection and to the identification of appropriate indicators and mechanisms
to evaluate the progress and the impact of policies and measures adopted for
all areas covered by the Convention, especially the most hidden such as child
abuse or ill-treatment, but also in relation to all groups of children
including minority group children, girl children, children in rural areas,
and children victims of sale, trafficking and prostitution. [27] The Committee
is concerned by the increasing phenomenon of child prostitution and
trafficking, which affects boys as well as girls. It is worried about the
insufficiency of measures to prevent and combat this phenomenon, and the lack
of rehabilitation measures. ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 8, 2006 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61614.htm [accessed 9 February
2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– The majority of trafficking victims have been lowland Lao, although small
numbers of highland minority women have also been victimized by traffickers.
Minority groups were particularly vulnerable because they do not have the
cultural familiarity or linguistic proximity to Thai that
Lao‑speaking workers can use to protect themselves from
exploitative situations. A much smaller number of trafficked foreign nationals,
especially Burmese and Vietnamese, transited through the country. Many labor
recruiters in the country were local persons with cross‑border
experience and were known to the trafficking victims. For the most part, they
had no connection to organized crime, commercial sexual exploitation, or the
practice of involuntary servitude, but their services usually ended once
their charges reached Thailand, where more organized trafficking operations
operated. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - Laos",
http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Laos.htm, [accessed <date>] |
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