WASSAYOS NGAMKHAM
Fate has played cruel tricks on her throughout the past six years, but a 10-year-old Burmese girl finally had some luck when she was rescued from a Burmese couple who treated her as slave labour.
Meena is luckier than many other Burmese children who fall into the hands of child abusers. She was freed from involuntary servitude by a good Samaritan on May 19.
Police from the Children, Juveniles and Women Division say the couple forced Meena to hawk roses around the Victory Monument and at nightspots on Ratchadaphisek road from 8pm to 6am every day for over six years.
A Burmese woman was arrested on Monday on charges of child exploitation and human trafficking. Her husband is still at large.
Meena, who called her abusers ''Pa and Ma'', said she was taken from her hometown in Phraya Tongzu, or Three Pagoda Pass, in Burma, opposite Kanchanaburi's Sangkhlaburi border checkpoint, at the age of four.
Since then, she had lived in abject misery, without any of the simple pleasures of childhood.
Meena said she was forced to sell roses at nightspots on Ratchadaphisek road and around the Victory Monument area for 10 hours every night. This brought in 300-400 baht a day, but it was not enough. She was also made to beg for money and buy sweets for the couple's six-year-old daughter on her way home.
''If I didn't sell all the flowers I would get slapped in the face and smacked. It hurt and I cried every day,'' she said.
Sometimes luck was on her side, the roses sold out and she returned home with bulging pockets. Her reward was 5-10 baht and no smack.
For over six years, her daily fare was a plate of rice with one fried egg.
''I love eating shrimps. I remember a day when a farang man bought me a big shrimp with sauce. It was very delicious. I ate it all, except the head part,'' Meena said in a jolly voice and sparkling eyes.
Now under the care of the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security and the Prachabodi Centre she dreams of learning to read and write, but above all wants to go home to Burma and help her real mother.
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