Topping it all is the passage of the new National Security Act, 2007 that has led to increased human rights abuses perpetrated mainly by government officials and security forces against indigenous and other minority peoples. Throughout 2008, while claiming to help combat the “drug epidemic” in the country, this law was used to control and suppress indigenous peoples and other forest dependent communities from “encroaching” into the forests, to control cross-border labor migration, and for the “problem of terrorism” in the three southern provinces (i.e., Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani). Aside from the three southern provinces, this law is also frequently employed by government officials in addressing the “problem of terrorism” in the border areas of Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Mae Hong Son, Tak, Kanchaburi and Ratburi Provinces.