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THAILAND - Dealers are recruiting elderly people and children from Northeast villages to become Bangkok beggars for a hefty income worth Bt7,000 (S$290) to Bt15,000 (S$620) per family per month, the Mirror Foundation revealed yesterday.
Ekkalak Lumchomkae, head of the foundation's Operation Centre against Human Trafficking, said a field study by his office found that some dealers were collecting transport and accommodation fees from villagers.
They also arranged a rented house in Bang Sue district for these people - who also included a village headman's family and relatives of tambon administrative organisation members - so that they could beg for money, especially from shoppers at Chatuchak Weekend Market.
During school terms, youngsters would travel to Bangkok to beg on Friday evening and return home on Sunday, while they would stay in Bangkok throughout school holidays.
Ekkalak said he was not sure if the Cabinet-approved draft legislation on beggars to replace the outdated 1941 Begging Control Act would violate people's rights. It could label some people as beggars and could be a loophole for human traffickers to have people registered as legalised beggars with local administrative organisations.
"Most beggars include those doing so voluntarily and those being lured into this semihuman trafficking that operates in the capital. I'm concerned about people being brought to register as beggars. For example, take a village in Surin where all elderly people claim they are underprivileged and have nothing to eat, so they wish to register as beggars. What would you do?" he said.
Ekkalak praised the new law's attempt to register disabled beggars and those suffering severe poverty.
He urged authorities to identify voluntary beggars and to give them sufficient social welfare, while those forced into begging by traffickers should be rescued and the Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act 2008 applied.
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