1 Extradition issues arising in human trafficking matters Chatchom Akapin Executive Director International Affairs Department Office of the Attorney General

2 Not until June 2008 was the ‘human trafficking’ first criminalized and introduced in the ‘Prevention and Suppression of Trafficking in Persons Act 2008’ Before June 2008, Thailand relied on the ‘Penal Code’ to deal with the human trafficking issues. These include the provisions of deprivation of liberty, coercion, assault, etc.

3 Prevention and Suppression of Trafficking in Persons Act Section 6 - Whoever, for the purpose of exploitation, does any of the following acts: (1) procuring, buying, selling, vending, bringing from or sending to, detaining or confining, harboring, or receiving any person, by means of the threat or use of force, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power, or of the giving money or benefits to achieve money Essences of the Act include: Providing definition of ‘human trafficking

4 (2) procuring, buying, selling, vending, bringing from or sending to, detaining or confining, harboring, or receiving a child; is guilty of trafficking in person Punishment – four to ten years imprisonment, and a fine from eighty thousand baht to two hundred thousand baht 4 or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person in allowing the offender to exploit the person under his control; or

5 If overseas offenders are involved in human trafficking cases, and do not reside in Thailand, extradition is required. Three years after the Act was introduced, there has not been any extradition request in relation to human trafficking cases. In the case of extradition, however, most countries do not extradite their own nationals. Thus, Thailand has to request the country in which the offenders are residing to initiate a human trafficking case against its own national under MLA.

6 Furthermore, the newly introduced Act has adopted the concept of ‘Extra- territorial jurisdiction’, i.e., although the human trafficking offence is committed outside Thailand, the offender could be punished in the kingdom. (Section 11) Under the Criminal Procedure Code, the Attorney General is responsible for investigating all crimes occurring outside Thailand, but punishable within the country.

7 Those crimes include human trafficking cases. To date, there have been approximately 30 requests for the investigation on human trafficking cases occurring outside Thailand.

8 In mid 2005, three Laotian women were persuaded to work in the restaurants in Thailand, but ended up being forced to sex service. Later, they were rescued from the government authorities, and provided with a shelter. However, they left the shelter for Laos without permission. A case study: Human trafficking in the case of three Laotian women

9 After the police arrested the offenders, they asked the three victims to give statements in Thailand, but all the victims denied. The Royal Police Department then made an MLA request to the AG, as the Central Authority to seek assistance from Laotian government. The requested country accommodated the requested by taking statements from all the victims and sent them to the Thai government.