タイの人身取引被害政策の陥穽 : サバイバーのその後

This study investigates how survivors of Trafficking in Persons in Northeast Thailand live their lives after they leave a government shelter, and reveals the thoughts of the survivors and their families. Thailand is one of the leading ASEAN countries in combating trafficking in persons, having been upgraded to Tier 2 out of four in the 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report. There are nine shelters for victims of Human Trafficking run by the Thai government. The shelters provide lots of activities such as emotional stability programs and vocational training. Through the experience, a lot of victims have successfully recovered physically and mentally. However, some literature pointed out that those supports were focused on short-term reintegration of survivors and not enough to prevent them from continuing to be vulnerable or becoming trafficking victims again after they left the shelters. While there is much research on policy recommendations, legal protections, and support provided by shelters and NGOs, little research tracks survivors after they leave shelters.
The author worked at a government shelter in Nakhon Ratchasima Province from 2018 to 2020. As a case study of the shelter's support for victims, the author conducted participant observation and interviews for about two years at the shelter. As for what happened to the survivors afterward, the author visited six survivors in their hometowns from 2019 to 2020 and conducted follow-up semi-structured interviews and participant observation. The survivors in this study were all Thai females who were sexually exploited in the Northeast region, and aged 14-17 at the time of the follow-up interviews.
The study found that although the survivors received vocational training while in the shelter, what they learned was not directly connected to actual jobs. In addition, the jobs they finally found were often low wages and required long hours of work. Therefore, even after they left the shelter, their living conditions did not improve much, and many of them continued to suffer from poverty. The results also revealed that it is important for them to have a place where they belong besides home to reintegrate into society. Moreover, it found that having adults close by whom the survivors could trust and rely on for advice was a major factor in their attempts to reintegrate and think positively about their future.
The study concludes that countermeasures against human trafficking in Thailand are still not enough in terms of long-term support for survivors since lots of survivors struggle with poverty and some of them even choose to prostitute themselves and become victims again. The results suggest that it is necessary to review and improve the vocational training and educational opportunities in the shelter to support survivors’ reintegration.