When there is no-one else…
Monday, October 19th, 2009
Thai-Burmese border crossing at Mae Sai
We received this e-mail below from a gentleman in Mae Sai, on the Thai-Burmese border. We met with him 6 months ago as part of increasing our intelligence network and recently it paid off.
‘Hi John
Late this afternoon we were informed by one of our children (boy aged about 10 yrs) who visits our Drop in Centre (DiC) that he has regularly been sexually abused by a man who also comes into our DiC. On making further enquires my staff inform me that this man has also abused three 3 young girls two sisters aged 9 & 12, another girl aged 7 and possibly a girl aged about 4………I do not know who I can trust in the local police as some would not deal with this situation in a professional way, therefore I do not know who to contact. I am aware that you have trustworthily contacts and would appreciate some urgent advice……’
The children were part of the never-ending flow of children who are trafficked into begging gangs and end up homeless on the streets of Mae Sai. Grey Man immediately put our Thai Director of Operations on to it. Within a short space of time the children had been secured, taken to hospital to be checked, the police informed and children taken to be interviewed under the care of Grey Man personnel. They were then taken to a shelter that we have good connections with for their protection.
Luckily, the Burmese perpetrator was found to be in custody on another charge and we simply added rape and a variety of other charges to his sheet. He will be sentenced very soon and will do jail time. The children are safe and happy. It isn’t usually as easy as this but we were very happy with the outcome.
The following recent email from the gentleman running the drop in centre says it all:
‘Dear John
Many thanks for your contribution in the recent situation, it was appreciated. I will definitely contact Grey Man should we encounter similar situations again. The police handled the case professionally and it was in court in a record time. I would like to think that this was due to their concerns and commitment, however it is more likely because they knew your team was overseeing the operation.
Kind words and possibly true but we had good co-operation from the Mae Sai police and we thank them for their assistance. They don’t always have the resources to follow up every case of abuse but they do their best. Sometimes they just need a little help.
This was a good day.
John Curtis
