On June 6, 2022, Labour Minister Mr. Suchart Chomklin, Assistant Minister from the Prime Minister’s Office performing duties for the Ministry of Labour Police Major General Nantachat Supamongkol, and Permanent Secretary of Labour, Mr. Boonchob Suttamanaswong, joined the anti-human trafficking campaign for 2022, “NO VICTIMS TEARS,” which took place at the Santi Maitree Building Government House. Prime Minister and Minister of Defense General Prayuth Chan-ocha presided over the opening ceremony. The event awarded the Outstanding Award for Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking to workers, agencies, children, and youths. They visited the Thailand Performance Exhibition, the Thailand Human Trafficking Database System Exhibition, and information systems for managing the Fund for the Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking. They visited the booths of relevant agencies, including the Royal Thai Police, the Ministry of Labour, the ASEAN-Australia Counter-Trafficking Initiative, the victim protection center, and an exhibition of outstanding children, youths, and agencies on the prevention and suppression of human trafficking. From the Ministry of Labour, Ms. Sophana Boon-Long, Head of the Office of the Secretariat of the Labour Trafficking Prevention Command Center, Office of the Permanent Secretary of Labour, received the Best Defense Worker Award.
The Labour Minister said that the Ministry of Labour has focused on driving government policies to prevent and suppress human trafficking that is set as a national agenda. The Ministry of Labour has a continuous role in preventing and solving human trafficking in Thailand. It has implemented initiatives under the Action Plan for the Prevention and Resolution of Labour Trafficking in Persons among vulnerable groups, such as migrant workers, child labour, and fishing workers, ensuring protection by labour law and employment conditions following international principles. The Ministry of Labour has worked with relevant agencies to drive the policy. Efforts include labour inspections at the PIPO center in 22 coastal provinces, qualitative labour inspections in general enterprises, and workplace inspections at places at risk of child labour, forced labour, and labour trafficking. It has implemented projects in collaboration with foreign countries and international organizations, including the relaxation of measures allowing foreign workers from the three nationalities to stay in the Kingdom to work temporarily during the Covid-19 outbreak. It has established the CI Center, serving from January 10 to August 1, .2022, encouraging companies to adopt the Good Labour Practices (GLP). It has upgraded the command center for preventing human trafficking in labour to be a division-level agency to direct the flow of operations. For instance, it has appointed the Task Force Against Human Trafficking in Labour.
The Permanent Secretary of Labour added that from 2021 to 2022, the Ministry of Labour had taken steps in response to the TIP REPORT on important issues, which is establishing a standard operating guideline. It has created a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on initial screening guidelines to seek indications for persons with reasonable grounds to suspect that they may be victims of labour exploitation, forced labour, or labour trafficking, following the Anti-Human Trafficking Act B.E. 2551. The Ministry of Labour has spread awareness and disseminated the said SOP manual to agencies in all 76 provincial regions for trial use. It will compile and evaluate feedback for improvements and develop a manual for effective screening of victims of labour exploitation, forced labour, or labour trafficking, effective following the principles of international standards to jointly drive the prevention of trafficking in persons, promoting Thailand to the Tier 2 category in 2022.
The event was organized by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security. Its purpose is to show the commitment of the Thai government to preventing and suppressing human trafficking in Thailand, campaigns to disseminate action against human trafficking in Thailand and to create a correct understanding of anti-human trafficking for the people, and network partners in both central government agencies and the provinces, NGOs, international organizations and the media. It aims to join forces of relevant agencies of Thailand in the prevention and suppression of human trafficking to become evident and recognized in the international arena.
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Division of Public Relations
6 June 2022
