World Day Against Trafficking in Persons
On this 2025 World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, we are calling on decision-makers from concerned South East Asian countries to take urgent action to ensure there are no more children exploited in forced begging on the streets of major Thai cities.
I have been living in Thailand for more than a decade and have been witnessing almost every day the dramatic phenomenon of children exploited into forced begging on the streets of Bangkok. Many of them are victims of trafficking and are exploited by trafficking rings who do not hesitate to mutilate them to attract more compassion, like in the following story created by children who participated in a regional children’s consultation organised by Terre des Hommes in May 2025 in Bangkok to describe the issue of the exploitation of children as a result of trafficking in persons.
Jane is 11 years old and half Thai-laos. She is from Thailand. Her skin color is dark. She has TB (Tuberculosis). Her parents passed away so she has no family. She has been kidnapped in a van, her arm was taken off so that people feel sorry for her and force her to work as a beggar in the street in Bangkok. Each day, she has been brought to beg from 4 pm to midnight. She has no money. When she earned money from begging, it was taken away from her. They also hit her. She asks for help from all of us.
“They have no education and don’t know how to help themselves or who can help. Adults in that area should know there’s a beggar and try to help. We as a child also can help ourselves by telling ourselves that we are valuable.”
As a child rights activist and as a parent, seeing children in such situations where they are deprived of their basic rights and at high risk of being more severely exploited and abused is terribly shocking. This needs to stop.
On this 2025 World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, we are calling on decision-makers from concerned South East Asian countries who can make change happen to take urgent action to ensure there are no more children exploited in forced begging on the streets of major Thai cities, including Chiang Mai and Pattaya.
Despite the scarcity of recent research on the issue of children exploited for the purpose of forced begging in Thailand and in the sub-region, but according to the Mirror Foundation, around 1,000 children are used for begging purposes everyday in Thailand. This data dates back from 2012 and we may assume that this number has increased following the impact of the Covid pandemic crisis on the most vulnerable families in Thailand and in the sub-region. 90% of children exploited for begging purposes are Cambodian who come from vulnerable communities and poor neighborhoods to Thailand, which is used as a regional hub by traffickers.
According to the former Chair of the ASEAN Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) and Director General of the International Affairs Department, Office of the Attorney General of Thailand, Mr. Wanchai Roujanavong, many of these children are brought illegally by trafficking rings, who purchased them from their parents in Cambodia, to exploit them in Thailand where begging is very lucrative compared to their homeland. They are kept under the control of traffickers in rented houses and brought every day by traffickers to begging spots with other trafficked adults forced to beg.
Despite various measures and efforts, the Thai decision makers have not yet succeeded in tackling the problem.
According to official data from the Royal Thai government, the number of reported cases of children trafficked specifically for the purpose of begging has increased from 2 cases in 2020 and 2021, to 3 in 2022 and to 15 cases in 2023, but has significantly decreased in 2024 with only one case reported.
There seem to be quite some significant discrepancy between the number of alleged cases of child trafficking cases for the purpose of forced begging and the number of cases reported, investigated and prosecuted. At global level, the United Nations The United Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) recently reported that between 2020 and 2023 children comprised over a third (38%) of all victims of trafficking in persons identified worldwide (74,785 in 2022), which represent just less than 28,500 identified child victims.
However, it is assumed that the total figure of child trafficking cases at global level is much higher, as illustrated by our Thailand example which highlights the gap between reported/identified child trafficking cases and alleged cases, that for series of reasons are not reported, investigated and prosecuted and thus keep many harmed and traumatised children invisible, unprotected and with no access basic rights such as education and healthcare.
We can do something about it. Let’s work together!
Child trafficking for the purpose of forced begging on the streets of major Thai cities is a cross-border issue, we need decision makers from the whole Southeast Asian region involved as well as organisations like Terre des Hommes Netherlands.
Many actions and interventions should be undertaken, and we would like to recommend actions that we believe are a key priority to ensure that children can live free from being trafficked for the purpose of forced begging or any other form of exploitation:
Collaborating with research institutes and non-governmental organisations to conduct research on the specific issue of child trafficking for the purpose of forcing begging to collect up to date data to inform policies and programmes specifically designed to respond to the issue;
Continuing and increasing preventative measures against child trafficking including awareness raising among vulnerable communities;
Enhancing domestic and regional capacity and efforts regarding the identification of child victims of trafficking;
Ensuring that child victims have access to effective and quality trauma informed care interventions and have full access to education programmes in their country of origin or in the country of transit or in the country of destination.
