Tour company accused of kidnapping Karen children
CHIANG MAI – Bangkok’s Nation newspaper has a story about six “long-neck” Karen from a village in Mae Hong Son who were allegedly kidnapped from their homes in September by a private tour company.
The company has since forced the six to display themselves for tourists in a resort in Chiang Mai’s Mae Tang district, according to a relative of a victim, who received a call from a kidnapped girl.
Meanwhile, international non-government groups have condemned businesses in Chiang Mai using the Karen to attract tour groups, in what they refer to as “human zoos”.
Ya Thae – the husband of a woman kidnapped in Baan Huay Pu Kang in Padong Hill Tribe Conservation Community, in Mae Hong Son’s Muang district – said he found his family missing after returning home from picking up his son from school on September 24.
His wife Ma-se, aged 34, was gone along with his son aged eight and daughter, aged six. They had disappeared with three other children from Baan Huay Sue Tao.
Chanpen Santisuk, an official in charge of the long neck Karen community in Baan Huay Sue Tao, said she had received a phone call on November 3 from Mali, a girl who had disappeared weeks earlier.
The girl said she managed to call by borrowing a cell-phone from a tourist who went to the resort in Tambon Mae Kued, in Mae Tang district.
She and the other five Karen had been kidnapped and held by a group of Thai-Burmese labourers since the end of September.
The victims were forced to show themselves to tourists at the resort in Mae Tang – in return for a salary of Bt4,000 per month. The girl said they were threatened with death if they tried to escape. She asked Chanpen to get police to help them.
The six kidnapped Karen have been given refugee status by the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
They were “listed” after complaints from the Burmese government about unscrupulous Thai business people using the Karen as tourist attractions in an unethical manner.
Police in Mae Tang district are now trying to find the hotel where the alleged kidnap victims are being held.
Officials from independent organisations focused on human trafficking have urged the Thai government to treat the problem seriously. They believed the Mae Taeng resort kidnapped the Karen, and has kept them under lock and key to make money out of them, by displaying them in a fake village setting.
For a fee, tourists get a chance to take photographs with “long necks” and observe an “authentic” Karen life.
There have been reports of hotels in Mae Tang, Mae Rim and Chiang Dao districts organising Karen lifestyle shows. Many claim they want to preserve the art and culture of the region for tourists.
“Karen people who live in our area are willing to live there. We never force them,” said an official at a hotel in Chiang Dao, which put on a Karen lifestyle show. The official asked not to be named.
Report by The Nation
Ian Jarrett
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