Human trafficking suspect arrested after 12 years on the run
published : 18 Sep 2024 at 07:48
ORIGINAL SOURCE/WRITER: Wassayos Ngamkham
Police have arrested a woman on charges of human trafficking in connection with forced labour on fishing boats after she was on the run for more than a decade.
Sompong Sroithong, 62, was arrested after officers stopped her pickup truck in Samut Prakan on Monday.
Police had been hunting her since a Thai-African victim filed a complaint with the Social Development and Welfare Department in 2012, saying he had been deceived by a promise of high wages to work on a fishing boat.
The man said Ms Sompong forced him to work on one trawler after another as a slave labourer, according to police. He was finally dumped into the sea in the Gulf of Thailand by a skipper before being rescued by a Vietnamese cargo ship.
Police said an investigation found Ms Sompong was the ringleader of a gang preying on Thai men and foreigners to supply them to work as slaves on fishing boats.
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Vocabulary
- arrest: (of the police) taking someone to a police station because they are believed to have committed a crime - การจับกุม
- deceive: to persuade someone that something false is the truth - หลอก
- human trafficking: the trade of humans, most commonly for the purpose of sexual slavery, forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others (Source: Wikipedia) - การค้ามนุษย์
- hunt (verb): to look for a person or animal in order to catch them or harm them; to chase wild animals or birds in order to catch or kill them for food, sport or to make money - ตามหา, ล่า
- on the run: running away from something , such as the police -
- prey on: to hurt or deceive a group of people, especially people who are weak or can easily be hurt or deceived - หาเหยื่อ
- ringleader (noun): a person who leads others in crime or in causing trouble - หัวหน้าแก๊ง, หัวหน้ากลุ่มอันธพาล
- skipper: the captain or manager of a team - ผู้นำทีม
- slave: a person who is owned by other people; a person who is treated as a thing to be owned, personal property of another - ทาส, ผู้ทำงานหนักและได้ค่าแรงต่ำ
- trawler (noun): a boat used for fishing by pulling a large net through the water - เรืออวนลาก
- wage: an amount of money that you earn for working, usually according to how many hours or days you work each week or month - ค่าจ้าง
