Thailand: Traffickers Pose As Christian Missionaries To Entrap Victims

Human traffickers have begun posing as Christian missionaries or pilgrims in order to pass airport controls, Philippine and Thai police reported after a recent investigation, according to a report from Agenzia Fides on Wednesday. 

Law enforcement recently stopped two young women, 23 and 25 years old, from being trafficked to Thailand by an older woman who claimed they were Christian missionaries. After noticing inconsistencies in their documents, airport officials detained the women, who said they were  “volunteers belonging to the Catholic Church for missionary work in Thailand.”

raffUpon investigation, they discovered the older woman to be an organizer of a trafficking network that smuggles women to Thailand. The young women accompanying her had been allegedly “seduced” by the prospect of a teaching job, then pulled into a criminal network of prostitution.