The Royal Thai Police (RTP) deputy commissioner Srivara Ransibrahmanakul has instructed the foreign affairs and the anti trafficking in persons divisions to get ready to cooperate with German police following raids of brothels and the arrest of Thai suspects in Germany.
Pol Gen Srivara said he had instructed the two police divisions to be on stand by should German authorities contacted the Thai police regarding the case.
German authorities searched 62 brothels, offices and homes in several federal states on Wednesday (April 18) and arrested seven people in a crackdown on suspected human trafficking in connection with a Thai prostitution ring, Reuters reported.
The raids, which involved more than 1,500 officers, prosecutors and tax officials, represented the biggest mass search in the history of the federal force.
The investigation has turned up 56 people, aged 26 to 66, who are suspected of crimes related to human trafficking, forced prostitution, pimping, withholding of wages and tax evasion, the Frankfurt general prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Prosecutors suspect that a number of people, led by a 59-year-old Thai woman and her 62-year-old German partner, brought women and transsexuals from Thailand to Germany on tourist visas and forced them into prostitution.
The investigation has so far identified a total of 32 women and transsexuals who were smuggled into Germany by the suspects and who allegedly worked in the brothels as prostitutes, Reuters quoted the prosecutor’s office.
Responding to the German police operation, Pol Gen Srivara said on Thursday that Thai police have no information on the charges yet but believed they might be guilty of working withouth work permits.
He said prostitution in Germany is legalized, therefore the Thai detainees could be charged over work permit issue.
He said as the crimes were committed outside the country, what the Thai police could do was to wait if German police would made complaints to Thailand.
The RTP’s anti trafficking in persons division commander Pol Maj Gen Kornchai Klayklueng said it remained unclear if the Thai suspects would be implicated in human trafficking trade.
He said the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs would seek further information from the German authorities regarding the Thai suspects and Thai victims.
Pol Maj Gen Kornchai admitted that some Thai women work as prostitutions in Germany where prosititution is legal, but many of them applied for tourist visa instead of applying for work permits.
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