Thailand - Woman files first trafficking suit

Thailand - Woman files first trafficking suit

Bangkok (dpa) - In a landmark case for Thailand's judicial system, a 39-year-old woman on Tuesday filed a civil lawsuit against three fellow villagers for trafficking her into prostitution in Japan.

Urairat Soimee filed her suit at the Lom Sak Provincial Court in Phetchabun province, 300 kilometres north of Bangkok, demanding 4.6 million baht (118,000 dollars) in compensation from Sarit Khampah, his wife Khai and their relative Phathama Kosaka for luring her into working as a sex worker under false pretenses in Japan in 2000.

Urairat filed a "forma pauperis" suit, claiming she was too poor to pay the court the required deposit equivalent to 5 per cent of the requested compensation.

"The court accepted the forma pauperis status and will soon set a date for the trial," said Janjila Boonprasert, a case coordinator working with Urairat from Thailand's National Human Rights Committee (NHRC).

Urairat's case is deemed a landmark in Thailand, where human trafficking is rampant, because past victims of the trade dared not press charges against the perpetrators out of fear or shame.

"Society tends to look down on victims of prostitution trafficking because there is a belief that they enter the trade willingly," said NHRC's Janjila, in a telephone interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Urairat, who is dying from ovarian cancer, is different.

"She's filing the lawsuit because she has nothing to lose," said Janjila. "Her time is almost over. Her body is weak but her determination is strong."

Urairat in her suit claimed that the accused, all residents in her hometown of Lom Sak, duped her into travelling to Japan on the promise that they had secured her a job in a Thai restaurant but instead forced her to work as a prostitute.

In an attempt to flee the sex slavery Urairat killed her "mama san" or female pimp, for which a Japanese court sentenced her to seven years imprisonment.

Urairat was released after serving five years and allowed to return to Thailand last year when she was diagnosed as dying from ovarian cancer.