ASIA/CAMBODIA - Apostolic Prefect Figaredo: a border wall is not the solution to the fight against human trafficking

Battambang (Agenzia Fides) - The Thai government has announced that it will study the feasibility of building a wall along the border with Cambodia to prevent illegal border crossings. According to the Bangkok government, the wall is intended to combat the human trafficking network that supplies the so-called "scam centers" in Thailand, i.e. the "fraudulent call centers" located both in Thailand (for example on the border with Myanmar) and in Cambodia, just across the border with Thailand.
The Thai government intends to step up its efforts against criminal organizations involved in human trafficking, forced slavery, large-scale financial fraud, but also in drug trafficking and the smuggling of goods. According to the United Nations, in recent years hundreds of thousands of people, lured by job advertisements, have been kidnapped by these criminal gangs and held in slavery in "scam cities".
"The problem exists and it is serious," says Jesuit Father Enrique Figaredo Alvargonzález, who has lived and worked in Cambodia for 40 years as a Spanish missionary and is Apostolic Prefect of Battambang, the province on the border between Cambodia and Thailand, in an interview with Fides. "Human trafficking is a scourge that must be fought with all available means, and this is also done through the cooperation and network of civil society." "However," continues the Apostolic Prefect, "the project of a wall seems rather unrealistic, considering the permeability of the border and the thousands of Cambodian workers, especially young people, who have emigrated to Thailand from the province of Battambang." "Today, there are many villages in our province that are unfortunately empty because young people migrate to Thailand to do the menial jobs that Thai workers do not want to do," he says. "But a wall is certainly not the right solution: such problems are addressed through dialogue and cooperation between governments at all levels and also through fruitful cooperation with non-governmental organizations and associations," he notes. "Caritas in Cambodia is committed to the victims of human trafficking and strives to raise awareness among the population, in full agreement with the civil authorities," stresses the Prefect. Thailand and Cambodia share a 817-kilometer border. In autumn 2024, the two neighboring countries opened a new border crossing in Sa Kaeo province, the so-called "Thai-Cambodian Friendship Bridge," near the city of Poipet. They also extended the times for border crossings at the Chong Sa-ngam border (in Si Sa Ket province) to promote trade and tourism between the two nations, facilitate the cross-border transport of goods and intensify the exchange of people. (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 4/3/2025)

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