Structures
Every issue has a center of gravity. Thailand's largest city and the country's capital, Bangkok is the epicenter for human rights abuses, and the Patpong district being ground zero for the exploitation of women and children.
Foreign expatriates have capitalized on exploitation of the Thai people under the guise of Thailand's thriving tourism industry. They have even claimed employment in Patpong is a better option for young women from the country's rice farming communities.
Planned Actions
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Raids since Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has taken office raids have increased. The raids are meant to check trafficking of migrants and underage prostitution. However bribes and extortion are rampant.
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Update the laws as they relate to prostitution. The raids and rescue operations conducted by the police are executed under laws related to migrant workers not prostitution.
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Empower advocacy groups and local authorities to provided sex workers with healthcare and vocational training.
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Mandate that ownership of property where criminal acts are committed can be punishable by fine or incarceration.
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If legalization is not an option, the Thai administration will need to begin to dismantle districts like Patpong.
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Tax foreign investors at a higher rate to financially discourage them from partaking in exploiting Thai people from vulnerable areas
Even though prostitution has been illegal since 1960, the law is almost invariably ignored as the lucrative business provides payoffs to untold numbers of officials and policemen (Asia News Monitor, 2019). Prostitution is prolific throughout much of Thailand, but Bangkok is the hub, with the notorious red-light district of Patpong as the epicenter (Brooks, 2014).
Thailand has had a long and complex relationship with commercial sex work that persists today. Thailand's modern sex industry is believed to have been established in conjunction with the establishment of the Japanese military bases during World War II. It expanded quickly during the Vietnam War, when U.S. troops came to Bangkok for their recreation leaves. Unfortunately, over the next several decades the country has become synonymous with sex tourism. The number of male visitors frequenting bars, massage parlors and karaoke lounges have multiplied as tourist numbers soared.
Commercial sex work in any form is technically illegal in Thailand. However, laws to this effect are often ambiguous and unenforced. Some analysts have argued that the high demand for sexual services in Thailand limits the likelihood of the industry being curtailed. Thai Officials possess great economic and political power in Thailand, where military coups have long been routine. The current Prime Minister, Prayuth Chan-o-cha, is a former army chief who led a coup that ousted a democratically elected government in 2014. Senior military and police officials often hold stakes in nightlife venues and, while prostitution is technically illegal in the predominantly Buddhist nation, officials turn a blind eye (Pilcher, 2019). In spite of this attitude the goal of many activists and government agencies that operate in an around the Patpong is limiting abusive practices within the industry.
The lack of intervention has opened the door for nefarious actors to exploit Thailand's vulnerable populace. The problems in Thailand are deep-rooted and even though the practice is illegal and punishable by a fine and incarceration, advocacy groups estimate there are more than a quarter million sex workers in Thailand. This does not include the tens of thousands of migrants from neighboring Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam (Asia News Monitor, 2019).