The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has pledged to crack down on human trafficking, with offenders in transnational criminal organisations, influential persons and government officials found to be involved in such crimes prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Triyarith Temahivong, the DSI's director-general, made the remarks yesterday at the end of a three-day workshop called Lessons Learned from Prosecution for Transnational Crime in Regard to Human Trafficking in Phuket.
The workshop was attended by 135 delegates from the DSI's anti-human trafficking network and was aimed at learning lessons from the past to find better ways to tackle the scourge.
As part of these efforts to suppress human trafficking, Dr Triyarith said the DSI has focused on enhancing inter-agency cooperation in the public and private sectors in terms of reporting clues and sharing knowledge of suspects or missing persons.
He said the Thai government considers human trafficking to be a top priority on the national agenda.
Justice Minister Somsak Thepsutin has ordered authorities under his supervision to take more decisive action to target trafficking gangs.