Abstract
We present results from a mixed methods study, involving survey data collection and focus groups, to understand the current processes of identifying victims of human trafficking in Thailand. Participants represent a broad spectrum of inter-governmental organizations, regional and local NGOs, Thai government officials, translators, and previously exploited migrant workers. Across these different stakeholders, participants identified key problems of lack of trust, communication issues, and differences in understanding of the key indicators of human trafficking between parties. The study also highlighted participants’ perceptions on the role that technology can play to address the problems they face in identifying victims. It identifies the use of a smart phone application on the NGO or frontline responder’s own device as a potential facility to enable workers in vulnerable situations to self-identify and seek help, allowing them to bridge the communication and skills divide with the channels of help that already exist.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
ILO: ILO global estimate of forced labour: results and methodology. International Labour Office, Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour (SAP-FL), Geneva, Switzerland (2012)
US State Department: Trafficking in Persons Report June 2017. US State Department (2017)
Weitzer, R.: New directions in research on human trafficking. Ann. Am. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci. 653, 6–24 (2014)
Schenker, M.B.: A global perspective of migration and occupational health. Am. J. Ind. Med. 53, 329–337 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.20834
Ahonen, E.Q., Benavides, F.G., Benach, J.: Immigrant populations, work and health–a systematic literature review. Scand. J. Work. Environ. Health. 33, 96–104 (2007)
UNODC: Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons. United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, Palermo (2000)
Skrivankova, K.: Between decent work and forced labour: examining the continuum of exploitation. Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York (2010)
ILO: Decent work. http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/decent-work/lang–en/index.htm. Accessed 03 Sept 2018
Rouse, C., Darin, S.: Child trafficking in the Mekong Sub-Region. Safe Child Thailand. https://www.safechildthailand.org/sites/default/files/Child-Trafficking-in-the-Sub-Mekong-Region-Safe-Child-Thailand-web.pdf. Accessed 03 Sept 2018
Mcgill, A.: The highs and lows of the 2017 TIP Report | International Labor Rights Forum. International Labor Rights Forum, Washingtion, DC. https://laborrights.org/blog/201707/highs-and-lows-2017-tip-report. Accessed 03 Sept 2018
Issara Institute: Technological Innovation to Empower Workers and Eliminate Human Trafficking in Global Supply Chains. Issara Institute, Bangkok, Thailand. https://www.issarainstitute.org/reports-and-publications. Accessed 03 Sept 2018
Rie, T.: POEA launches mobile app vs. illegal recruiters. http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/353281/scitech/technology/poea-launches-mobile-app-vs-illegal-recruiters. Accessed 03 Sept 2018
Latonero, M., Wex, B., Dank, M.: Technology and Labor Trafficking in a Network Society: General Overview, Emerging Innovations, and Philippines Case Study (2015). https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2574676
Weiss, J.: How eyeWitness to Atrocities empowers journalists to record evidence of international crimes, International Journalists’ Network. https://ijnet.org/en/blog/how-eyewitness-atrocities-empowers-journalists-record-evidence-international-crimes. Accessed 03 Sept 2018
UN General Assembly: Principles relating to remote sensing of the earth from space (1986)
Rashid, C.M.M.: Satellites reveal “child slave camps” in UNESCO-protected park in Bangladesh. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/10/23/satellites-reveal-child-slave-camps-in-unesco-protected-park-in/. Accessed 03 Sept 2018
Syria crisis: Amnesty alarm at Aleppo “bombing” images. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-19174257. Accessed 03 Sept 2018
Amnesty International: North Korea: New satellite images show continued investment in the infrastructure of repression. Amnesty International USA, London, UK. https://www.amnestyusa.org/reports/north-korea-new-satellite-images-show-continued-investment-in-the-infrastructure-of-repression/. Accessed 03 Sept 2018
Milton, C.: Ending Slavery on Lake Volta. http://blog.tomnod.com/ending-slavery-on-lake-volta. Accessed 03 Sept 2018
Powell, R.A., Single, H.M.: Focus groups. Int. J. Qual. Health Care 8, 499–504 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/8.5.499
Puri, S.K., Byrne, E., Nhampossa, J.L., Quraishi, Z.B.: Contextuality of participation in IS design: a developing country perspective. In: Presented at the Eighth Conference on Participatory Design: Artful Integration: Interweaving Media, Materials and Practices (2004). https://doi.org/10.1145/1011870.1011876
Cohene, T., Baecker, R., Marziali, E.: Designing interactive life story multimedia for a family affected by alzheimer’s disease: a case study. In: CHI 2005 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1300–1303. ACM, New York (2005). https://doi.org/10.1145/1056808.1056901
Best, M.L., Smyth, T.N., Serrano-Baquero, D., Etherton, J.: Designing for and with diaspora: a case study of work for the truth and reconciliation commission of Liberia. In: CHI 2009 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 2903–2918. ACM (2009). https://doi.org/10.1145/1520340.1520418
Boyd-Graber, J.L., et al.: Participatory design with proxies: developing a desktop-PDA system to support people with aphasia. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 151–160. ACM (2006). https://doi.org/10.1145/1124772.1124797
International Labour Office, Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour, Hard to see, harder to count: survey guidelines to estimate forced labour of adults and children. http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/forced-labour/publications/WCMS_182096/lang–en/index.htm. Accessed 03 Sept 2018
Verástegui, E.L.: Consenting of the vulnerable: the informed consent procedure in advanced cancer patients in Mexico. BMC Med. Ethics. 7, 13 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6939-7-13
Schmidt, T.A., et al.: Confronting the ethical challenges to informed consent in emergency medicine research. Acad. Emerg. Med. 11, 1082–1089 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1197/j.aem.2004.05.028
Van den Hoven, J.: ICT and value sensitive design. In: Goujon, P., Lavelle, S., Duquenoy, P., Kimppa, K., Laurent, V. (eds.) The Information Society: Innovation, Legitimacy, Ethics and Democracy In honor of Professor Jacques Berleur s.j. IIFIP, vol. 233, pp. 67–72. Springer, Boston, MA (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-72381-5_8
Acknowledgements
We thank our colleagues from The Mekong Club, in particular Silvia Mera, who helped to organize and conduct the field research that formed the basis of this research.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Thinyane, H. (2019). Supporting the Identification of Victims of Human Trafficking and Forced Labor in Thailand. In: Krauss, K., Turpin, M., Naude, F. (eds) Locally Relevant ICT Research. IDIA 2018. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 933. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11235-6_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11235-6_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-11234-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-11235-6
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)