A raid on a prostitution establishment in Pattaya on Monday has lead to the removal of a Pattaya police chief and four senior officers in the force. The discovery of 18 sex workers, including an underage Thai girl, in a raid conducted by police specialists has also led to a case being prepared against two foreign owners thought to be a Taiwanese man and his Chinese partner. The raid is matter of particular controversy coming weeks after a walkabout by senior Thai officials including police, on Soi 6 or Walking Street, which declared the area a prostitution free zone.
It follows a Thammasat University seminar, in September last year, which showed evidence of the inner workings of the prostitution industry in Thailand. The seminar saw calls for the trade to legalized so that Thai sex workers can achieve recognition. These included one underage Thai girl who was seventeen years of age. Reports suggest that the head of Thai police in Pattaya himself has been removed as well as four of his senior police officers.
It was an elaborate operation with specialist police to deal with the Thai women working at the bar and specialist officers trained to retain evidence. Thai police authorities are reported to be working on a case against the owners of the bar, reported to be a consortium of foreigners with Thai partners. They will later be processed for deportation following revocation of their visas.
The two foreigners identified so far, are a Taiwanese and Chinese businessmen. A large staff of Thai women were employed at the bar with a coordinated uniform of black revealing tops with black mini skirts with yellow trim. The name of the establishment would, for instance, have left no westerner in any doubt as to the mission of the business premises. The raid is acutely embarrassing to Thai law enforcement in Pattaya as on June 7th last Thai police together with a cohort of government officials and officers, walked the street in public and declared that there was no prostitution in Pattaya.
Similar exercises were conducted on different occasions in The raid on the Walking Street premises on Monday is thought to be due to intelligence and reports filed by the influential Ronnasit Foundation which is very active in Pattaya. The NGO is dedicated to fighting, among other things, poverty and injustice against Thai men and women. However, in recent years, it has focused its attention on combating human trafficking.
