THAILAND IS hoping its efforts to combat human trafficking will elevate it from last year’s “Tier 2 Watch list” status designated by the US State Department.

“We’re certainly hopeful that we will be viewed more positively,” said Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai yesterday at a briefing unveiling Thailand’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) 2016 report. “We also think that human trafficking is a global issue and should be focused on by all countries regardless of administration.”

Copies of the report were submitted to the US State Department on Tuesday as a part of its annual human trafficking review and ratings of countries worldwide. The department is expected to respond in June.

High-ranking officials from the Labour Ministry, Social Development and Human Security Ministry and police attended the press briefing announcing the report yesterday at the Foreign Ministry.

The Kingdom was saddled with the lowest Tier 3 rating in 2015, and was raised to “Tier 2 Watch list” last year following improved efforts by the government in tackling slavery practices in the fishery industry. The industry would remain a focus of authorities, the report said, together with forced prostitution and child pornography.

The government emphasised five strategic areas in the report: policy, prosecution, protection, prevention and partnership.

‘Zero tolerance’

With a “zero tolerance” commitment against human trafficking, the report said the government had increased its overall anti-human trafficking budget by 23.88 per cent and intensified its legal safeguards by setting up the Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Increasing Effectiveness of Human Trafficking Prosecution to coordinate law enforcement.

Regarding prosecutions, the report said police had uncovered and investigated 333 cases and the Office of the Attorney-General had indicted 301 cases, an increase of 5 per cent and 19.92 per cent respectively from 2015.

The number of convictions rose to 268 from 205 in 2015. Assets seized from traffickers also increased by 307 per cent to US$22 million (Bt77.5 million) compared with the year before.

Since 2013, criminal and disciplinary actions have been taken against 45 governmental officials, including 10 police officers in 2016, the report said.

The report said 196 victims of human trafficking had been offered jobs, including at shelters, an increase of 350.1 per cent from 47 victims in 2015. Victims and witnesses were also allowed to stay in Thailand for up to two years and there were improvements in protection services and rehabilitation plans aimed at empowering and developing victims’ skills.

A new law regulating migrant labour recruitment agencies while reducing costs and times for migrant workers to enter Thailand was also enforced last year, the report said, as well as a new requirement for compulsory identification documents in the fishery sector.

Authorities have also improved cooperation with the Asean Convention against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children; the Australia-Asia Programme; and US agencies such as Homeland Security Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

General Kittisak Rathprasert, head of the complaint centre of the Anti-Corruption Network Foundation, said the team’s latest visit to Sakhon Nakhon found information that supported Jomsap’s claim of innocence.

The team tracked Jomsap’s movements on March 11, 2005, starting from her request for early leave from school to her transferring the ownership of her pick-up truck to Prapat Saenmuangkhot at the Sakhon Nakhon land transport office at 2.30pm.

She then borrowed the truck to place a reservation for a new sedan at the Honda Service Centre, which also presented a reservation slip dated March 11, 2005. Her claim that she stopped at a shop at around 5pm for an eyebrow tattoo and then left the shop at around 6.40pm before doing going shopping was also corroborated, Kittisak said.

He added that she apparently arrived home at around 8pm, so the centre was confident that she was innocent.

The fatal crash took place at around 8pm about 40 kilometres from Jomsap’s home.

Tattoo shop owner Pattawan Boonchuay said she provided the tattoo service to Jomsap, although she could not provide the exact time.

The centre’s director-general, Wiwat Charoenpanichsiri, said the agency would report its findings to the Justice Ministry and send a team of investigators and lawyers to help during the retrial.

Jomsap was sentenced to three years and two months in jail for allegedly killing an elderly man, Lua Phorbumrung, in the crash. She served a year and a half before being released by royal pardon in 2015.

While the Justice Ministry has sought to help her to seek a retrial, which she has said would prove her innocence, police have stood by the original evidence and claimed that her supporters formed a network fabricating evidence to help her case.

The Nakhon Phanom Court will hold hearings from Wednesday to next Friday where witnesses and evidence will be presented by both sides as a step towards a possible retrial.

Authorities said there were no reasons for another military coup and that the current post-coup government was enjoying unity with the Armed Forces. They also said that the military worked under the administration.

Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said military officers did not want to stage a coup unless the country was mired in a severe impasse. He added that if reconciliation could be reached between the conflicting sides, “no coups would ever happen again” in Thailand.

“There is a high likelihood of no more coups if all the politicians can talk to one another and take good care of the people. The military then works under politicians,” Prawit said.

Army commander-in-chief General Chalermchai Sitthisart also ruled out the possibility of a coup against the current government. He said Thai people should know better than the foreign media regarding the matter.

Chalermchai, speaking in his capacity as secretary-general of the ruling junta’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), said he had stated there would not be a coup under his leadership shortly after assuming office as the Army chief last October.

The Army chief said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha had the trust of all the Armed Forces commanders regarding security matters.

As NCPO secretary, Chalermchai was assigned by Prayut, who is also the NCPO chief, to approve the movements of military weapons on his behalf. Chalermchai said the move was aimed at reducing the prime minister’s workload.

A Washington Post analysis piece published on Tuesday, under the headline “Where are coups most likely to occur in 2017?”, said Thailand was the second on a list of “Thirty countries with the highest risk of a coup attempt” – the top being Burundi. The list included mostly African countries, as well as Turkey in the fifth spot, Pakistan 14th, Russia 20th, Ukraine 22nd and Nepal 28th.

The American newspaper said the rankings were based on its research to forecast irregular leadership changes that include coups.

“The country [Thailand] approved a new constitution in 2016 and scheduled elections for 2017 – but, as some researchers point out, elections often increase the risk of further coup attempts,” the paper said.

Democrat Party politician Watchara Petchthong said the Washington Post analysis was inaccurate as he believed that Thailand should have been ranked highest in terms of the chance of seeing another coup.

“Thailand always has a risk of a military coup. We have coups and elections alternatively, on average one coup every 10 years,” he said, adding that he did not think the latest coup in May 2014 would be the last for Thailand.

In a related development, Prawit and Chalermchai said threats had been made against both the defence minister and the prime minister.

Prawit said reporters who asked him about the possibility of another coup this year should have paid attention to an online threat to assassinate him.

“Some people posted on social media that they will kill me,” he said.

Chalermchai said security had been stepped up around Prayut and Prawit following the threat, although he did not think anything bad would happen. The Army chief also said intelligence did not indicate any threats to the security of the two government leaders.

However, the few photos that he has posted on Facebook would raise eyebrows, including selfies taken with luxury cars such as Lamborghinis and Mercedes-Benzes, which appear to have been taken at his house in Laos.

In other photos, he is shown with people surrounded by more luxury vehicles, including one in which he is sitting on one of the cars wearing a sleeveless T-shirt showing tattoos on both arms.

Xaysana was arrested at Suvarnabhumi Airport in front of many travellers on January 19 after police were tipped off that he and three other people were flying in from Phuket.

Police said the arrest was the culmination of a five-year investigation into a drug network allegedly operated by Xaysana, which police said distributed drugs in northeastern Thailand, Laos and other Asean countries including Malaysia and Singapore.

The network is believed to be bigger than that allegedly operated by Laota Sanli, who was arrested in October and is accused of also distributing drugs in northern Thailand.

Xaysana, known in Laos as Hia Lop, was born in Khammouane province of Laos, opposite Nakhon Phanom’s Ta Uten district in Thailand.

He moved to Vientiane and ran a sawmill factory that reportedly earned him a lot of money, and he eventually established himself as a member of the “new rich” in Lao high society.

Social network users have been accustomed to seeing photos of Xaysana posing with the country’s celebrities and young family members of politicians.

He was also a familiar face in Thailand because he helped to organise Thailand-Laos joint events.

In Vientiane, he was also a frequent visitor to cock-fighting gambling dens and owned his own stable of fighting roosters.

A source said the wide-ranging drug network Xaysana allegedly operated was protected by influential police and politicians, enabling him to run a lucrative business for years.

Pol Lt-General Sommai Kongwisaisuk, the commissioner of Thailand’s anti-drugs agency, said Xaysana had contacted distributors via the chat app Line, using codes to prevent the messages from being intercepted.

Xaysana allegedly used his luxury cars to smuggle drugs, which reportedly deterred police from conducting thorough searches.

Harka Bahadur Subba, a single father of four, disappeared from the Sena Place Hotel on Phaholyothin Road in Phya Thai district at about 6am. Harka Bahadur is 1.65 metres tall and he was wearing a red-chequered shirt and white pants when he was last seen. He does not speak Thai or English.

He came to Bangkok to attend a training session and may have been lost and could not find a way to return to his hotel, according to a Facebook post by Mirror Foundation.

Anyone who spots Harka Bahadur can contact the Foundation at 0807752673.

Tshering Tobgay, leader of the People’s Democratic Party in Bhutan, wrote on his Facebook page that Bhutanese Ambassador Tshewang C Dorji was in touch with Thai police regarding the disappearance.

He said the missing man is a cook in Damphu Central School and came to Thailand with nine other teachers and cooks for training in natural farming in Saraburi province.