Parents of Cambodian human trafficking victims who were rescued from fishing boats in the southern border province of Ranong have travelled to Thailand to testify for their children in court.
"I just want to see [the lawsuit] end quickly so my son can come back home and hopefully receive some compensation," said Gong Tu, 59, from the southwestern Cambodian province of Kampot.
His 18-year-old son was promised a shore-based job in Thailand by a Cambodian broker two years ago.
But six months later, Mr Gong Tu received a phone call from some of the fishing crew who had escaped from a boat, saying his son was at sea. The father then contacted local authorities.
"It's a big horizon out there. I don't know how he was treated at sea. I just want to tell the judge how worried I was," said the father, whose village is some 300 kilometres from Trat border province.
He said the Cambodian Foreign Ministry was now aware of his son's case.
The man, who has seen two of his six children become migrant workers overseas, hardly smiled during the interview. His son is now at a temporary shelter in Thailand. His daughter, who has been working in Malaysia, has lost contact with him.
Mr Gong Tu is among a group of parents who have been brought to Thailand by the Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF), an NGO which has arranged their testimony as witnesses for the human trafficking case at the Ranong court this week.
The prosecution took the case to court after authorities raided two fishing boats in Ranong on Jan 21 last year and rescued 15 Cambodian crew members who claim they were victims of forced labour and human trafficking.
The victims were allegedly tricked into coming to Thailand with false promises of good shore-based jobs and incomes by Cambodian brokers but they ended up having to work on fishing boats in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia waters, according to the HRDF.
Some tried to escape but were recaptured and told by the fishing dock owner, who is now a defendant in the court case, that they had been sold to him.
The victims' parents were told they would need to pay the man 30,000 baht each in exchange for their children's freedom, the HRDF said.
Chab Sanan, 67, mother of three of the 15 victims, insisted she was not aware that her sons were being taken to work as fishing crew. "When they [the brokers] persuaded my three children, I thought they would work on-shore. When I received the first call from them, there seemed to be some hiccups. They said the paperwork was not ready yet," said Ms Chab Sanan, from Cambodia's Svay Rieng province.
She said the Thai boat owner or employer would eventually contact the families of those tricked into working at sea.
"They gave us 15,000 baht, promising to return our children quickly if we withdrew the lawsuit against them. But so far, we haven't seen our children yet," said Ms Chab Sanan. Soon Palee, 60, from Kampong Cham province, said over the past two years her son sent money three times -- 5,000 baht, US$600 (about 21,000 baht), and $250.
Ms Soon Palee said she hoped her presence at the court would help bring justice to the trafficked migrants. "I can testify how the broker recruited my children but I don't know how harsh conditions in the boat were," she said.
The victims agreed to appoint HRDF's lawyers as their legal representatives and the foundation's lawyers are co-plaintiffs in the case.
