A sixteen-year-old Mon woman was raped and left for dead by a gang of six men in Maharchai, Samut Sakorn Province, Southern Thailand, reported her uncle.  Speaking with a Mon human rights worker on the Thai-Burma border, he stated that in the early hours of March 29th four men grabbed his niece outside a shop and threw her into a car. They bound her with rope and beat her until she lost consciousness. Then, together with

Location of Incident

two friends who were waiting outside of town, they raped her repeatedly and dumped her in some bushes, assuming she had died. She awoke at ten that morning and, with the help of a trash collector working in the area, contacted her uncle who took her to a nearby hospital.

The incident is not an isolated one, reports an activist who works for labor rights in the province, “Burmese migrant women workers are raped by gang groups like this very often in Maharchai.”  A further two cases were rumored to have happened in that same week alone, but could not be confirmed.

Rape victims and their families are often reluctant to speak out or publicize the incidents, due to feelings of shame and cultural misunderstanding. The situation can be especially difficult for migrant workers, who are more likely to be deported than helped by Thai authorities.

In many cases, victims or their families are forced to pay money to the abductors, or be sold into slavery as prostitutes. In this case, however, the men thought the victim had died and therefore did not attempt to sell her or hold anyone to ransom. The woman, from Du Yar Village Ye Township, had been working as an illegal factory night worker for six months. Like many without a work permit, she had difficulty finding work and had to settle for night work, with shits from six pm until three am. During the day she hid in her uncle’s home.