IOM has been cited by the Thai government for outstanding
achievement in the field of prevention, victim protection and
suppression of human trafficking in Thailand.

The award, marking Thailand's National Anti-Trafficking Day on
Sunday (June 5th), was made by the country's Ministry of Social
Development and Human Security (MSDHS).

"This award is a tribute to over a decade of IOM assistance to
the Thai government in providing support to foreign victims of
trafficking in Thailand and Thai victims returning from abroad,"
said IOM Thailand Chief of Mission Monique Filsnoel.

Thailand is a major destination country for trafficking from its
neighbours and IOM has played a key role in supporting Thai efforts
to draw up bilateral agreements on the identification, repatriation
and reintegration of victims from Cambodia (2003), Lao PDR (2005),
Viet Nam (2008) and Myanmar (2009).

It has also helped some 3,600 trafficking victims to return home
from Thailand, not only to neighbouring countries, but also to
Colombia, Uzbekistan and China's Yunnan Province.

IOM has also helped 183 Thai victims of trafficking to return
home from Australia, Italy, Japan, South Africa, Switzerland, the
UK and the USA since 2005. It also provided reintegration support
to help them to start new lives.

In addition to return and reintegration of victims, IOM has
played a major role in raising awareness of human trafficking in
Thailand through mass information campaigns and training of law
enforcement officials, social workers and NGO partners.

An estimated 12 million people have seen its "Shattered Dreams"
animated counter trafficking film, which has been dubbed into 12
languages including Thai, Lao, Burmese, Shan, Khmer, Vietnamese,
Indonesian, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Khumh and Mon.

For more information please contact:

Chris Lom

IOM Bangkok

E-mail: "mailto:clom@iom.int">clom@iom.int

Tel: + 66.819275215