Police on Saturday arrested a Cambodian man for allegedly running a child beggar racket and rescued two young boys who were forced to beg on Bangkok’s streets.
Police had acted on public complaints that a gang was forcing children to wear school uniforms and beg in front of The Mall Bang Kapi and in the Ngam Wong Wan area, said Pol Maj Gen Chavalit Sawaengphuet, the head of the Anti-Human Trafficking Division.
Investigators found two Cambodian boys aged under 15 had been forced to beg in the areas from 7am to 9pm every day. Each night the pair would meet a Cambodian man identified only as Sok at his rented apartment in Lat Phrao Soi 47 and give him the money they had earned.
Mr Sok had brought the boys from Cambodia and forced them fetch at least 200 baht a day. If they failed to do so, they would have to cover the deficit on the next day, the officer said, quoting the young beggars.
Police arrested Mr Sok and charged him with human trafficking and exploiting children.
They seized from him three donation boxes, a bank book, three mobile phones and 4,100 baht in cash. Officials found the man had transferred 150,000 baht thought to have earned from the begging racket to a bank account in Cambodia.
The suspect denied the charge, saying he began working as a labourer in Bangkok a few months ago and his relatives had asked him to keep the boys temporarily.
He claimed he had no idea that the boys were begging on the streets but officers did not believe him.
Officers display donation boxes allegedly used by the Cambodian child beggars. (Photo by Wassayos Ngamkham)