A report by Empower: human rights violations women are subjected to when "rescued" by anti-trafficking groups who employ methods using deception, force and coercion

Source
Empower
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Year
2003

Empower Foundation is a Thai organisation since 1985. Empower promotes opportunities for women workers in the entertainment industry. Empower strives to promote these opportunities and rights to all women workers regardless of their country of origin.

Far from being a "bold new method" as being proclaimed, Empower Chiang Mai has been dealing with the issue of "raids and rescues" of women working in brothels for the past 11 years.

Empower abhors the trafficking of any persons; forced labor including forced sex work; and the sexual abuse of children, whether for commercial exploitation or not.

Over the past three years there has been an increased international and national focus on the situation of women who have been trafficked.

However, the focus on trafficking in persons has meant many groups with little or no experience on the issues of migration, labor, sex work or women's rights have been created to take advantage of the large sums of money available to support anti-trafficking activities. Their inexperience and lack of contact with the sex worker community has meant they are unable or unwilling to differentiate between women who have been trafficked and migrant workers. They also show a great deal of trouble differentiating between women and girls, often applying identical standards and solutions for both. It is obviously inappropriate to treat a girl as an adult and just as obviously inappropriate to treat an adult as a child.

Empower has monitored the methods and results of these group's activities and we are very alarmed at the increasing violations and inhumane treatment women are subjected to by unworkable and unethical methods.

Empower has used the most recent experience of "rescue" to further highlight our concerns.

The content of this resource includes:

  • Rescue of Trafcord with the support of the International Justice Mission
  • Recommendations

You can download this 6 page PDF resource above. This resource is in English.