"Thai Police, NGO Rescue Lao and Cambodian Workers Trafficked For Labor", 28 February 2018

Thai police working together with labor rights advocates freed 19 migrant workers, some still in their teens, from an ice factory…after one of the migrants escaped and described to police the conditions in which they were being held.

The freed workers, who included six Lao nationals and 13 Cambodians, had been forced to live in the factory and were made to work long hours for little pay, with some threatened at knife-point by a guard hired by their employer….

While confined in the factory, though, they were paid only 150 to 170 baht (U.S. $4.76 to $5.40) per day, while male workers, including three Lao boys under 17 years of age from Laos’s Champassak province, were paid a daily wage of from 220 to 270 baht (U.S. $6.99 to $8.58).

All were housed in a room surrounded by wire fencing to prevent escapes, and were forced to work from 5:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with only day off per month….

Smark Thupthani, head of LPN’s anti-trafficking section, said…“And all of them had been treated as badly as human trafficking victims…”.

Police have now charged the workers’ employer with six violations of their rights, including forced confinement, work beyond legally allowable hours, pay below the minimum wage, and the use of illegal labor, Smark said.