Trafficking Persists on Thai-Burma Boarder

February 15, 2014

WCRP: On Sunday, February 9th, 2014, a four year-old girl was abducted from the Thai-Burma boarder. The Mon Women’s Network (MWN) has been working to raise awareness and charge offenders of human trafficking, but child abduction continues to persist in Three Pagodas Pass Township. The child was lucky to be found, thanks to the efforts of the MWN and local people.

The four year-old daughter of Mi Aye Moe Thet, 24, and Nai Ba Lai, 25, was abducted from her neighborhood at 12:00pm the afternoon of February 9^th. Mi Aye Moe Thet and Nai Ba Lai informed the village administrator and MWN as soon as they learned that their daughter was abducted; news spread quickly and local villagers, along with the MWN began searching for the child.

According to local children who were playing with the girl before her abduction, the victim was playing near the monastery in Gu Boa Village, Three Pagodas Pass Township, when a bald man approached her with offers of a snack and a ball to play with. Villagers witnessed the man take the child and transfer her to a woman on a motorbike at the top of the village. The woman then brought the girl to the nearby Thai gate to enter Thai side.

The female culprit was not able to pass through the gate with the child, and left the child near a garbage can with a snack. It is assumed that if the woman did pass through the gate with the child, it would arouse suspicion from the Thai soldiers, and they would prevent her from entering Thai side.

The child was found by a garbage collector three hours after her initial abduction, at 3:00pm on the same day. The garbage collector noticed the child because she was alone, standing beside a garbage can. The child has no idea of her abduction; when her parents questioned her as to what she experienced, the girl knew nothing, only telling them that she was given snacks to eat and a ball to play with.

Some villagers believe that the woman involved in the abduction could be the child’s aunt, Mi Aye Soe because, as a local woman from Gu Baw Village states, “Mi Aye Soe used to commit this kind of crime in the past. She has [previously] been charged 5,000 baht for trafficking [a] 4 month-old child”. The woman explains that, “[local villagers suspect] it could be Mi Aye Soe’s connection [who] tried to abduct the girl”.

The child’s parents work at a rubber plantation in Chonburi Province, Thailand. They returned to Gu Boa village to join the Buddhist ceremony. The girl has one older brother, and one younger sister.

Written by Modinator · Filed Under News