Most research into human trafficking and cross-border
migration has focused on the ‘supply’ side – especially
the economic and social conditions at home that drive
women and children to leave in the first place. But
what about the conditions at the destinations? What
about the hazardous working conditions in the work
places where these migrants end up – the factories, the
farms, the fishing boats and the domestic kitchens?
Do they contribute to trafficking – or indeed do these
conditions and the employers who allow them to prevail equate to traffickers by their very definition? Why do these conditions exist and when labour standards are being violated why don’t the Thai authorities take action?