On 5 November 2010, Mr. Ward Elcock, Special Advisor on Human Smuggling and Illegal Migration of Canada paid a courtesy call on Mr. Kasit Piromya, Foreign Minister, on the occasion of his visit to Thailand to discuss the issue of human trafficking and people smuggling.
Mr. Elcock stated that the Canadian government has considered human trafficking and people smuggling as well as illegal migration as a political issue. At present, there are huge numbers of illegal migrants in Canada. In this regard, Mr. Elcock expressed his wish to cooperate with the Thai authorities in monitoring the movement of people, who may wish to transit Thailand and entered into Canada illegally. Foreign Minister Kasit, in response, informed the Canadian delegation that Thailand has already enforced the Anti-Human Trafficking B.E. 2551 Law which impose more severe penalties for both traffickers and those who lend their shelters to illegal migrants. Moreover, Thailand has been an active participant in the Bali Process to support regional cooperative measures to pre-empt and seek solutions for human trafficking and people smuggling as well as other transnational crimes. As Thailand is both transit and destination country, Foreign Minister Kasit stated that it is important for the relevant Thai agencies to look at the issues in a comprehensive way in order to address the problems more effectively.
Upon the discussion, Foreign Minister Kasit and the Canadian delegation agreed that they share the same stand point on human trafficking and people smuggling issues and, therefore, both countries could cooperate on sharing know-how and best practices to increase capacity building on offshore cross-border activities through organising training courses for relevant agencies in Thailand. In addition, Foreign Minister Kasit also reaffirmed Thailand’s readiness to work with Canada to provide assistance on socio-economic development to countries of origin as a pre-emptive measure to address the problem.
For further information, please contact the Press Division, Department of Information, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tel.02-6435170, Fax.02-6435169, E-mail: div0704@mfa.go.th