Jurgen THOMAS is a French humanitarian specialized in combating sexual exploitation and supporting the rehabilitation of victims in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. After working with international organizations such as the NGO Acting for Women in Distressing Situations (AFESIP) in Cambodia and Thailand, he co-founded Alliance Anti Trafic, where he currently serves as the Executive Director of the Thai office.
Active throughout Southeast Asia, the NGO is a key player in the fight against human trafficking in the region.
In this interview, Jurgen THOMAS, co-founder of Alliance Anti Trafic, highlights the key issues involved in the organization’s fieldwork. He sheds light on the challenges of regional cooperation and the strategies implemented to identify, protect, and sustainably reintegrate victims of human trafficking.
Foundation RAJA-Danièle Marcovici (FRDM): Could you introduce Alliance Anti Trafic and its key actions to combat human trafficking, particularly of women and girls?
Jurgen Thomas (J.T.): Alliance Anti Trafic (AAT) fights against the trafficking of women and girls as well as their sexual exploitation in various forms (prostitution, grooming, forced marriage, forced surrogacy, etc.). We are a grassroots organization working without intermediaries.
Our work follows several phases: first, the identification of victims by our investigators, who collect evidence; then, the extraction and legal support of victims, in collaboration with social workers and lawyers, in order to prosecute traffickers.
Finally, we provide psychological and social support to promote professional reintegration and the empowerment of survivors. For younger victims, we encourage them to resume their studies or enroll in vocational training programs.
We also use a peer-support system, allowing former victims to take an active role in AAT’s projects by helping identify new victims. This strengthens their self-confidence and financial independence.
Our work began in Vietnam. As a source country, Vietnamese women are trafficked both within and outside of its borders.
We then launched a project in Thailand, a central hub for trafficking. The country receives foreign women who are victims of trafficking, but also sends Thai women abroad through trafficking networks. It is also a transit point for foreign women “destined” for other countries such as Singapore or Malaysia.
From Thailand, we expanded our work to Laos (to reintegrate Lao women we rescued in Thailand), then to Myanmar (to reintegrate Burmese women also rescued in Thailand).
Currently, our projects in Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar are interconnected. We repatriate and reintegrate Lao and Burmese women who have been trafficked in or through Thailand, and we also assist Burmese and Lao women who were trafficked to China for forced marriage, helping them return and reintegrate into their home countries.
We also repatriate Thai women trafficked to other countries and support their reintegration in Thailand. In Vietnam, we also run prevention programs and provide educational support to daughters of women in prostitution.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, trafficking in Thailand has intensified, particularly due to the use of social media for prostitution-related activities.
In addition, we have observed for several years a massive trafficking of Lao and Burmese women to China, often for forced marriage or sexual slavery. Although this phenomenon has gained international attention since 2016, the lack of cooperation from Chinese authorities makes the repatriation of victims extremely difficult.
In this context, our former victims play a crucial role in supporting these women.
We have also expanded our work to Europe, particularly in Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Denmark, where many Thai women are exploited by their husbands.
FRDM: How do international anti-trafficking networks operate, and how does Alliance Anti Trafic contribute to international cooperation efforts?
J.T.: We work in collaboration with Interpol, local authorities, and NGOs such as La Voix de l’Enfant, Action Education, and Sourire d’Enfants.
Our partnerships are built on knowledge-sharing and networking. For instance, we have conducted exploratory studies on the trafficking of Thai women in Europe to better identify victims and understand their situations.
We also work with local communities and embassies to locate missing women and alert local organizations.
FRDM: Since its creation, Alliance Anti Trafic has significantly expanded its scope and geographical reach. How do your offices collaborate, and how does your structure enable action tailored to local realities?
J.T.: AAT is a French association with an administrative headquarters in France and international operations. The project began in Vietnam in the 1990s, initiated by Georges Blanchard, a French social worker. We gradually expanded our work to Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar.
We operate as a network, adapting our actions to local needs. For example, in Laos and Myanmar, we run awareness campaigns about the risks of forced marriage in China so that women can make informed decisions and travel safely without the risk of being trafficked.
FRDM: How do you collaborate with local authorities and other NGOs to protect victims and prosecute traffickers?
J.T.: When authorities are cooperative, such as in Thailand, we share our evidence to support investigations and participate in raids to extract victims.
However, corruption often hinders our work. In Laos, a communist regime, anti-trafficking actions are limited due to the government’s strict control over NGOs.
We collaborate with other NGOs through a referral system that allows us to direct victims to appropriate support structures. In countries like Cambodia, where many organizations are already working on trafficking and sexual exploitation, we let them take the lead.
We also train organizations whose primary work lies outside the field of trafficking. For example, in Laos, many associations focus on rehabilitation, road construction, or landmine clearance in border communities near China. Yet these border areas are where a significant number of women and girls are trafficked for forced marriage. We therefore intervene in these communities to train local actors to detect potential victims, whom we then take into our care.
FRDM: What are the main challenges you face in your prevention work and in supporting victims?
J.T.:
Corruption and the lack of cooperation from authorities hinder our efforts. Some victims are treated as illegal migrants and are incarcerated.
The issue of differing laws from one country to another is also a barrier to our work. In some countries, the laws are not aligned or even non-existent. A trafficking victim, for example, may be identified as an illegal migrant instead. She could then be incarcerated in a detention center. In some countries, victims are seen as volunteers who have come to tarnish their country’s reputation, and they may also be imprisoned.
Another on-the-ground issue is related to social media. In Thailand, it has become a new method used by these networks, forcing us to work on a case-by-case basis, which means we are able to rescue fewer victims, whereas in the past, we could intervene in brothels during a raid and rescue 40 to 50 victims.
In my opinion, social media also contributes to the normalization of prostitution and sexual violence, further exacerbated by early access to pornography. In Thailand, this creates a paradox between the reputation of ‘easy women’ and a very conservative society where women are expected to be virgins before marriage.
FRDM: Can you tell us about a rescue operation that particularly impacted you?
J.T.: In 2003, we rescued Vietnamese women who had been imprisoned in Thailand after being trafficked from Malaysia. These women had been tortured to force them into prostitution. One of them, who had been sent back to Thailand with false papers, was at risk of being recaptured by the traffickers. We negotiated with Thai immigration to repatriate her to Vietnam instead of sending her back to Malaysia.
Another Vietnamese victim, stateless, had spent three years in a detention center before we could organize her repatriation to Cambodia. We had to gather documents proving her identity. It was a challenging process that highlights the complexity of our mission.
These stories remind us of the importance of our fight to offer victims a way out and a dignified future.
Interview by Laurelenn BON, Project Manager, Fondation RAJA-Danièle Marcovici
