Richard Danziger (RD): The first time I came across human trafficking I was based in Indonesia in 2001. We received a call from the police saying that the navy had caught a Thai fishing boat fishing illegally in Indonesian waters. It turned out that they had about 80 Cambodians working in slave-like conditions on board and the authorities asked us to help them. We helped them all get back to Cambodia and then worked with an NGO there to get them back to their villages and involved in other work. This is a typical example: here were Cambodians who were offered the opportunity of a better paid job in Thailand, but once they were there – and of course they were then trapped on a boat – they ended up basically working for nothing. There were unconfirmed reports of cases of individuals being thrown overboard if they complained or were sick. So this was my first first-hand experience with human trafficking.
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