Tuesday May 08, 2007Of human bondageBangkok PostAfter 50 years, the anti-slavery law is finally being enforced
After treating the 13-year-old girl like a slave, and beating her black and blue for a whole year, it was her abusive boss's last act of cruelty that saved the girl's life. Since the girl could no longer work due to a high fever from the infected wounds all over her body, she became ''useless''. Her employer put her on a train back to her home village in Buri Ram, one of the country's poorest provinces, alone, untreated and unpaid for the previous year's work.
Chand (not her real name) looked so bad that even her parents missed her when she stepped off the train. When they finally caught up with her at the bus station, they were shocked. So were the village leaders when they saw her.
They asked what had happened, and this is what she told them.
The girl was forced to work from 4am to midnight every day, serving 50-year-old Wipaporn Songmeesap and her family of six. Instructed never to leave the house or contact her parents, fear-stricken Chand was only allowed to eat once or twice a day, unless her boss was angry with her, in which case she went hungry.
She said she was allowed to cook rice only once a week. This would be divided into small portions kept in the fridge, one portion for each meal. Warming rice was not allowed, and it was to be eaten cold, with leftovers, or simply with chilli.
When unhappy with her work, Wipaporn would violently beat her with an iron rod or a belt with a metal buckle, said Chand. She was never sent to the doctor, and repeated beatings kept opening old wounds, leading to a severe infection.
Alarmed by Chand's condition, the village head immediately sent her to Buri Ram Hospital for treatment of her badly infected wounds. Her swollen head was shaved so the severe cuts could be treated. Her knees were badly hurt from repeated beatings. Her bruised face and body needed immediate care. The little girl remained hospitalised for weeks before she could return home.
''She has survived to tell of the horrific ordeal she endured right in the heart of Bangkok,'' said human rights lawyer Siriwan Vongkietpaisan. ''Hers has become a landmark court case that could help many other victims of modern-day slavery.''
The legal efforts to take Chand's employer to court for the crime of slavery began two years ago, when Chand's parents sought help from the Child Rights Protection Foundation, the Gender Equity in Justice Project and the Association for the Promotion of the Status of Women.
In a landmark verdict last month, the Criminal Court sentenced Wipaporn to more than 10 years in jail for abusing Chand as a slave. The mother of four was also ordered to pay Chand 200,000 baht in compensation.
Despite an appeal by the defendant, history was made. The country's 51-year-old anti-slavery law had been enforced for the first time, paving the way for future cases to tackle human trafficking and slavery.
Until last month, no employer had been charged with the crime of slavery, although Thailand is rife with human trafficking and people working in slave-like conditions.
If taken to court at all, such employers were normally ordered to pay owed wages _ they were not liable to a prison term even if they locked up their employees and subjected them to drudgery and toil, unless this involved subjecting them to severe physical harm.
According to the Criminal Code, subjecting another person to slave-like conditions can result in a maximum seven year prison term. If it involves children under 15, the maximum jail term is increased to 10 years.
So why did it take 50 years for the anti-slavery law to be used?
The problems that plagued Chand's case provide telling answers.
''When we started investigating the girl's case, we found out that all the neighbours knew about her situation. But they did nothing to help,'' said Nattawut Buaprathum, a social worker from the Child Rights Protection Foundation.
Wipaporn's house is in the bustling Klong Thom area, in the heart of Bangkok. Her family appears normal and successful, with her children doing well at university, studying medicine and science.
''It was in this seemingly normal family that slavery was taking place. And people who knew about it chose to keep mum about it,'' said Nattawut. ''We must ask why this was the case.''
Thailand's tradition of slavery and bonded labour may be to blame, noted Chand's lawyer, Siriwan Vongkiatpaisan from the Gender Equity in Justice Project.
''It's probably why people still believe there is nothing wrong with making children work as servants, or why household servants are still not protected by the labour laws,''said Siriwan.
''Since servants are mainly uneducated girls and women, household servitude is about women's oppression. But the enforcement of the anti-slavery law won't benefit only women. It will help both men and women, both Thai nationals and non-Thais being treated as slaves,'' she said.
Millions of migrant workers from Burma, Laos and Cambodia, suffering too long hours and unfair pay, in illegal confinement, will stand to benefit. So will the children, Thais and non-Thais, who are sold to work in factories, private households and, worst of all, the sex industry.
Although migrant girls from neighbouring countries have become the majority of victims of human trafficking, many poor Thai girls like Chand are still caught in the web of slavery because their families are among the poorest of the poor in their communities, said Siriwan. Condemned as a centre of human trafficking, Thailand is drafting an anti-human trafficking bill which will also punish the use of slave labour. But this progressive law won't work if the present anti-slavery law remains unenforced, said Siriwan. For without legal precedent, the police will continue to refuse to charge abusive employers with the crime of slavery.
And she should know.
When she tried to press charges against Wipaporn for slavery, the police simply refused to accept it was happening. They fiercely insisted that the anti-slavery law did not apply, because Chand was not in chains, said Siriwan. They were also adamant that Thailand no longer has slaves, that no one had ever been charged with slavery, and that with no legal precedent, they could not enforce the law.
When pressed harder, the police simply told her they would not charge the defendant with the crime of slavery unless under order by the Public Prosecutor's Office. In the appeal to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the legal team detailed the oppression that little Chand endured, and how it fitted the legal definition of slavery under the country's anti-slavery law. It also pointed out Thailand's commitment to the United Nations Treaty Against Human Trafficking and the country's own anti-human trafficking bill in the pipeline.
To change society's association of slavery with chains, the appeal does not just clarify the wider legal definition of modern slavery, it also highlights the little-known fact that even in old Siam, owners were not allowed to mistreat their slaves.
Despite initial resistance from the Public Prosecutor's Office, the police finally got the order to investigate Chand's case.
The day the judges were to deliver their verdict, the Criminal Court was bustling with reporters. But they were not there to cover the landmark slavery case. In an adjacent court room, a young actor was suing a magazine editor for accusing him of being gay. And that, for them, was the hot news.
Such a lack of media interest only reflects society's general lack of moral outrage against the exploitation of the weak and the poor, said social worker Nattawut Buaprathum.
Such public outrage could make a big difference, he said. When Chand returned home, the village leaders were shocked to see how badly the girl had been abused. So they helped. When the doctors at Buri Ram Hospital saw Chand's wounds, they were so shocked they contacted human rights organisations for help.
Two years later, and Chand is no longer frail and exhausted. She is among the top students in her class, said social worker Natthiya Thongsrithet of the Emergency Home where Chand is staying. She is full of hope for her studies, hoping they will lead to employment so she can help support her poor family.
With regular psychological therapy, the teenager has also stopped having nightmares.
When she was recently given a camera to take pictures that reflect her thoughts and feelings, Chand chose badminton rackets as her subject.
Badminton is a fun, healthy sport, she explained. Hitting the shuttlecock is a safe way to vent one's anger without letting one's emotions hurt others.
''If we don't learn to control our anger, it can destroy everything in sight,'' she said, reflecting on her experience of being on the receiving end of someone else's rage.
Will fewer children face the same horror as Chand, now that the anti-slavery law is being enforced?
Human rights lawyer Siriwan sighed at the question. ''A good law is often not enforced because of deep prejudices that can paralyse the legal system,'' she said. ''We cannot expect the problem of slavery to go away unless we tackle our own prejudices that endorse the exploitation.''
