Thailand Law Library

by Thailand Lawyer

Chapter 1: General Provision

Whoever, for the purpose of exploitation, does any of the following acts:

1. procuring, buying, selling, vending, bringing from or sending to, detaining or confining, harboring, or receiving any person, by means of the threat or use of force, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power, or of the giving money or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person in allowing the offender to exploit the person under his control; or
2. procuring, buying, selling, vending, bringing from or sending to, detaining or confining, harboring, or receiving a child;

is guilty of trafficking in persons.

Whoever commits any of the following acts, shall be punished likewise as the offender of an offence of trafficking in persons:

1. supporting the commission of an offence of trafficking in persons;
2. aiding by contributing property, procuring a meeting place or lodge, for the offender of trafficking in persons;
3. assisting by any means so that the offender of trafficking in persons may not be arrested;
4. demanding, accepting, or agreeing to accept a property or any other benefit in order to help the offender of trafficking in persons not to be punished;
5. inducing, suggesting or contacting a person to become a member of the organized criminal group, for the purpose of committing an offence of trafficking in persons.

Whoever prepares to commit an offence as aforesaid by Section 6, shall be liable to one-third of the punishment stipulated for such offence.

Whoever, from two persons upwards, conspires to commit an offence as aforesaid by Section 6 shall be liable to no more than one-half of the punishment stipulated for such offence.

If any one of the offenders in paragraph one has committed in furtherance of the conspiratorial objective, each member of the conspiracy shall be liable, as an additional count, for the punishment stipulated for the committed offence.

In case the commission of an offence is carried out up to the stage of commencement, but because of the intervention of any conspirator, the offence cannot be carried through, or the offence is carried through but does not achieve its end, the conspirator so intervening is liable to the punishment as stipulated in paragraph one.

If the offender, under paragraph one, reverses his position by providing a true statement in relation to the conspiracy to the competent official before the conspired offence is committed, the court may not inflict punishment or inflict less punishment upon such person to any extent than that prescribed by the law for such offence.

In case where an offence stipulated in Section 6 is accrued by the commission of person as from three persons upwards or of the member of an organized criminal group, such offenders shall be liable to heavier punishment than that prescribed in the law by one-half.

Whenever an offence provided in Section 6 is committed by any member of an organized criminal group, everyone being the member of such organized criminal group at the time of the commission of such offence, knowing and conniving at such commission, shall be liable to the punishment prescribed for such offence, even though he has not personally committed such offence.

If an offence under paragraph one is committed in order that the trafficked person taken into or sent out of the Kingdom to be under the power of the other person unlawfully, the offender shall be liable to twice of the punishment prescribed for such offence.

Whoever commits an offence mentioned in Section 6 outside the Kingdom shall be liable for the punishment stipulated in this Act in the Kingdom. The provision of Section 10 of the Penal Code shall apply mutatis mutandis.

Whoever commits the offences under this Act by professing himself to be an official and exercising the functions of an official without being an official having the power to do so, shall be liable to twice the punishment stipulated for such offence.

Whoever, in the capacity as a member of the House of Representatives, member of the Senate, member of a Local Administration Council, Local Administrator, Government Official, employee of the Local Administration Organization, or employee of an organization or a public agency, member of a board, executive, or employee of state enterprise, an official, or member of a board of any organization under the Constitution, commits an offence under this Act shall be liable to twice the punishment stipulated for such offence.

Any member of the Committee, member of Sub-Committee, member of any working group and competent official empowered to act in accordance with this Act, committing an offence under this Act, shall be liable to thrice the punishment stipulated for such offence.

All offences under this Act shall be predicate offences under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, B.E. 2542 (1999).