Challenging Thailand's Cycle of Corruption & Human Trafficking

The 2024 statement recognized how many of these years-old laws were not as immediately effective as many would have hoped, instead having required the Thai government to have “constantly strengthened laws and regulations and increased operational efficiency.”

Despite all of these efforts, Thailand has made limited progress as it continues to not meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. Inconsistent interviewing techniques, lack of effort in identifying and protecting victims, and a multilevel system of corruption that impacts law enforcement, immigration, and the judiciary are all contributors to this lack of success.

Corruption impedes efforts to identify and support survivors, bring traffickers to justice, and break illicit syndicates. Researchers who studied the problem on behalf of the Thai government concluded that corruption “not only facilitates but causes and perpetuates trafficking activities.” Exploring and addressing corruption in the institutions combating human trafficking in Thailand will therefore be an essential part of addressing the trafficking issue.

Lack of Funding

The willingness of law enforcement to participate in corruption is due to a combination of low pay and a normalization of bribery. “Low pay has long been cited as the main contributor to widespread corruption in the force,” a story by the Bangkok Post said.

However, taking a bribe is not always an officer’s first choice. The Transparency International Anti-Corruption Helpdesk states that accepting gifts is usually the first step in working up to accepting things of higher value in exchange for turning a blind eye to corrupt practices from labor traffickers. Officers who are already struggling to make ends meet, who live within this system that heavily normalizes bribery in general, fall into this corrupt behavior out of perceived necessity.

“It’s important that people in these roles are paid a living wage and thus don’t find it necessary to take a bribe in order to make sure that they can put food on the table,” Andrew Friedman, senior fellow at CSIS’s Human Rights Initiative, said. “But it’s also important to ensure that there’s a societal or a political and legal understanding that these are crimes.”

Africa that making law enforcement feel their work is valued can reduce willingness to accept bribes.

“When you accompany it with other factors that allow them to be respected in their profession, it can mitigate that,” Stearns Lawson said. “It can be something as simple as quality uniforms. It can be as simple as badges.”

Still, dismantling the system that leads to average citizens and law enforcement believing that bribery will go unpunished is essential. Ensuring that the risks of participating in corruption outweigh the benefits of illicit income is a necessity.

“The most surefire way to ensure that actors don’t engage in corruption is ensuring that they’re held accountable when they are,” Friedman said.

Immigration enforcement has the potential to both disrupt and enable human trafficking. Immigration officials, with the right training, can identify victims of trafficking and provide the necessary services to escape.

Many victims of trafficking never cross international borders. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes found that 76.6 percent of detected victims of trafficking in the East Asia and Pacific region in 2023 were being trafficked within the country where they have citizenship. However, transnational networks often rely on corrupt immigration officials to move trafficked people across borders without legal documentation.

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra ordered a crackdown on immigration enforcement in January 2025, increasing the frequency from the standard three checks per year. However, these efforts to tighten immigration controls can sometimes negatively impact victims of trafficking.

If non-Thai citizens are caught in the country illegally, they are often imprisoned, even if they are being trafficked. This may serve to deter victims of trafficking from cooperating with law enforcement, as victims know they will likely be further victimized by the immigration system. According to a 2024 Department of State report, “The government’s requirements . . . deterred many potential victims from reporting their exploitation or agreeing to participate as witnesses.”

With the increasing prevalence of scam centers on the Thai-Myanmar border, trafficking victims often find themselves in an immigration grey area. Many of these centers exist in special economic zones with varying levels of legal protection for employees.

“Border zones in Thailand and throughout mainland Southeast Asia . . . The law is the weakest there,” said Japhet Quitzon, associate fellow with the Southeast Asia Program at CSIS. “It’s quite easy to find a border agent who may be sympathetic to you, who you’ve worked with in the past, who you know you can pay off to let people in and out.”

As trafficking increases in areas where enforcement of immigration laws is at its most inconsistent, it will be difficult for the Thai government to combat bribery and corruption among immigration authorities. But doing so, while avoiding punitive measures against the victims of trafficking themselves, will be essential to disrupting the transnational networks trafficking people across the border.

Corruption and trafficking exacerbate one another, so trafficking cannot be addressed without addressing corruption. Thailand has made efforts to combat corruption in its government, like establishing anti-corruption commissions. However, more work still needs to be done to make these efforts more effective.

Increased safety initiatives, more staff, more prosecuting power, and more legal independence can all bolster Thailand’s anti-corruption initiatives. Beyond addressing corruption, more economic incentives for vulnerable populations in Thailand can help prevent people from entering, or reentering, trafficking at all.

Anti-Corruption Initiatives

Thailand has had a National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) since 1999. This commission holds the power to prosecute high-ranking Thai officials who engage in corruption.

According to the 2017 Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand, the NACC has the responsibility to “conduct an inquiry and decide whether a government official is unusually wealthy, has committed an offense of corruption, or malfeasance in public office or malfeasance in judicial office.”

Last year, the NACC found four former executives of an oil and gas company guilty of corruption, collusion, and bribery.

Another government agency tasked with fighting corruption in Thailand is the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC), which makes recommendations about corruption among lower-level officials. According to its website, the PACC was created in 2008 after the NACC was overloaded with cases.

Thailand is actively trying to prevent corruption within its government through these various bodies. According to the NACC, Thailand wants to enhance its “reputation as a nation striving towards zero corruption.”