Trafficking's big fish go free

Trafficking's big fish go free

Police in the South have made what they claim is an important arrest.

The man in question has been charged for driving a truck crammed so full of migrants that a Rohingya woman died in the suffocating crush.

When police intervened and detained another 97 migrants from the five pickup trucks they stopped, they found many injured and in dire straits.

Authorities want credit for the arrest made last Saturday, because the incident involved human trafficking. Sadly, it is a vivid example of how authorities are failing to come to grips with this despicable crime.

According to police in Surat Thani and Nakhon Si Thammarat provinces, the 98 Rohingya, packed into five pickups, were heading from Phangnga province to Songkhla.

It is presumed they intended to travel on to Malaysia.

But the journey they intended to make is actually unclear, because the trucks were stopped by police early on Jan 11 in Hua Sai district of Nakhon Si Thammarat, a somewhat circuitous route to the deep South.

Police manning the checkpoint managed to arrest two of the five drivers at the scene.

The man arrested on Saturday was supposedly the third driver, leaving two still at large.

Police said the arrested man, Suriya Yodrak of Surat Thani, was identified in a lineup by Rohingya who were arrested on that trip. Officers said Mr Suriya admitted he was one of the drivers involved in the convoy.

There is a huge problem with this case, and police deserve little credit for managing to track down three of the five pickup drivers.

On its face, this is a classic case of catching minnows and letting the big fish go free.

Clearly, as the case has developed, the pickup drivers are only "hired hands" in an odious and undoubtedly profitable gang organised to prey on Rohingya.

Police in the South are silent, and so are their headquarters' chiefs in Bangkok, so it is uncertain how large this human trafficking gang is, and how many other victims it has abused.

The handling of the case takes on added significance today.

The most senior US official to visit Thailand since the coup arrives for talks on subjects that will include human trafficking.

Daniel Russel is the US State Department's assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs, in effect, the deputy of Secretary of State John Kerry for this region.

The government — particularly designated action-officials deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon and deputy Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai — are determined to impress upon Mr Russel and the US government that Thailand is serious about combating human trafficking.

They want to reverse last year's humiliating decision by the State Department to drop Thailand onto the list of "worst offenders" by downgrading it to Tier 3 on its Trafficking in Persons Report.

Today and through to April, however, the Thai position on the next US report will be decided by active, observed cases like the tragic, five-pickup convoy intercepted by police.

Officials will claim that the arrest of two drivers and the tracking of a third shows that authorities are serious about fighting the human trafficking gangs. Others will disagree.

With two drivers in detention on Jan 11, and another now in custody, police have failed to catch anything in their nets but the smallest fish, mere drivers.

The people up the line in this human trafficking operation remain at large, free to exploit and mistreat more groups of Rohingya and other migrants searching for a better life.

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