Group warns abduction of kids rampant

Gangs in vans preying on 3-14 year olds

SAI-ARUN PINADUANG & ANJIRA ASSAVANONDA

The abduction of children by gangs operating in vans is now rampant in Phayao province, according to the network against trafficking of women and children in the northern province. Serm Promsarn, a member of the child protection network and the Ban Lao Tambon Administration Organisation in Mae Jai district, said the abduction gang was hard to catch because they constantly changed their vehicles. The abductors also know the geography and their way around the villages, he said.

Their targets were children aged between three and 14. Victims older than 10 were usually girls, he said.

After being kidnapped, the children would then be sold to fishing trawler operators to work as child labourers, he said. The trafficking gang were also known to cut off children's limbs and force them to beg on the streets, he claimed.

Mr Serm said abductions often occurred in crowded areas where children easily get lost from their parents.

Napapan Wongpan, another member of the anti-trafficking network, said the abductors from outside of Phayao came to villages in Mae Jai district during the Songkran festival and evaded suspicion by mingling with revellers returning home for the holidays.

Recently, a five-year-old girl was grabbed by the gang while riding a bicycle near a market in tambon Ban Lao, she said. However, the girl was lucky as she was rescued by passers-by.

Despite having a vehicle checkpoint manned by volunteers in tambon Ban Lao, it was not always easy to keep an eye out for strangers, she said.

Charoensri Chaikhat, Phayao social development officer, said the province was very concerned about the trafficking rings and authorities had been ordered to devise methods to deter them.

Deputy Social Development and Human Security Minister Poldej Pinprateep said the ministry is keeping a close watch on the problem of missing children.

He said he had heard a few reports about the abduction gangs operating in vans, but more information was needed to verify the scale of the problem.

As far as he had heard from the Mirror Art Group's centre working on missing persons, there were 400-500 children aged under 15 that had gone missing over the past five years. Among them, only 19 cases were abductions, he said.

The rest, he said, had disappeared because of other causes, such as escaping from broken families, or being lured by people they knew on the internet.

However, the report of the abduction gangs in vans was a reminder that the problem was real, even though it was on a small scale.

The ministry will inform its provincial offices nationwide to beware of the issue, he said.

Dr Poldej said the problem of child abduction was one of his concerns and that he would visit three families in Samut Sakhon province today whose children had been kidnapped to gather information in order to find effective measures to tackle the problem.

Bangkok Post

Last Updated : Saturday April 21, 2007