NCJ Number
178839
Journal
Transnational Organized Crime Volume: 3 Issue: 4 Dated: Winter 1997 Pages: 74-104
Editor(s)
Phil Williams
Date Published
1997
Length
31 pages
Annotation
Thailand is a major center for trafficking in people; Thai workers and sex workers are trafficked to countries in Asia and elsewhere, and cheap labor is trafficked in from Burma and other neighboring countries; this paper gauges the scale of this business and describes its major characteristics.
Abstract
The emigration analysis involves Thai workers and sex workers to Japan, Taiwan, Germany, and other destinations; the immigration analysis focuses on cheap labor trafficked in from Burma during the period 1994-95. After profiling the setting for labor migration across countries, the paper provides an overview of transnational emigrants from Thailand, followed by a discussion of the economic value of Thai emigrants to the Thai economy as well as the economic value to the recipient countries of Japan, Germany, and Taiwan. Other sections of the paper provide data on Thai emigrants to Japan who become manual workers and sex workers, as well as the trafficking in women to Japan. Also discussed are a system of indentured labor in Japan, Thai prostitutes in Germany, Thai prostitutes in the United States, Thai unskilled workers in Taiwan, as well as immigrant workers and Burmese prostitutes in Thailand. The earnings from human trafficking are estimated, along with the social cost of transnational migration. Suggestions are offered for combating international trafficking in women. Appended case studies of Thai prostitutes in Japan, 7 tables, and 29 notes