When the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency paid their first visit to Thailand’s Education Ministry earlier this year, they came with a warning: there are Brits out there who may be a risk to Thai children.
“We know that sex offenders are attracted to places that they can have easy access to children, which include many countries within Southeast Asia,” said NCA international liaison officer Stephanie McCourt.
During the course of meetings with the ministry, Ms McCourt discussed a new initiative — the International Child Protection Certificate (ICPC) — to prevent sexual offenders from the UK travelling to other countries and gaining access to children through teaching or volunteering roles.
By last month, the ministry had issued warning letters to public and private schools nationwide, asking them to make it a condition for British nationals applying for teaching jobs to provide the certificate, which acts as a “police check”.
But there are serious doubts Thailand can prevent convicted sex offenders from working in schools here. Unlike the UK, which has stringent laws to protect children, the laws governing the employment of foreign teachers are vague and not always enforced.
Thai schools operate independently and have autonomy over hiring decisions, raising questions over whether the ministry’s efforts can have any practical effect.
“There is no statutory organisation in Thailand for child protection and, historically, we have taken it for granted,” said Teerakiat Jareonsettasin, a vice-minister for education. “I think our system is pretty loose, and, unfortunately, Thai culture looks up to Caucasians and sees them as morally great and rich.”
Ejected: Eric Franklin Rosser was training to be a teacher in Bangkok when he was arrested on suspicion of child pornography. His extradition to the US was approved in 2002.
EASY ACCESS
Eric, 25, has stayed in Thailand for three months and since last month has taught English conversation to Matthayom 1-6 students at a public school in a northern province. The Filipino decided to apply as a teacher on the recommendation of his brother, who teaches at another school in the same province.
“They [the school administrators] only asked for a certificate of graduation, transcript, passport and [information about] my work in the Philippines, but there was no interview,” he said. “I think they badly needed a teacher.”
On a recent Thursday morning, Eric was at the Teachers' Council of Thailand (TCT) to submit his application for a teacher’s licence, after taking a 10-and-a-half-hour bus trip to Bangkok.
“Even if you don’t have a degree, you can teach here as long as you speak English,” said Eric, who holds a bachelor of science in hotel and restaurant management. He is the only foreign teacher at the school and earns a salary of 15,000-20,000 baht, excluding housing.
Eric’s case shows just how simple it is to become a foreign teacher in Thailand, where the vast majority of schools won’t even ask an applicant for a police record or check.
To obtain a teacher’s licence, however, foreign applicants are required to state whether they have previously been sentenced to jail, or whether they have suffered from “improper behaviour or immorality”. Either of those factors, in the opinion of the TCT, may “bring dishonour upon the profession”.
The TCT was unable to provide the exact number of foreign teachers working in Thailand, but said 16,000 people had applied for temporary licences in the past 18 months.
On Ajarn Forum, a website for foreign teachers in Thailand, there are dozens of threads on criminal record checks for offences ranging from robbery and drugs to more serious offences. While some are related to the process of obtaining a criminal record check, most are about the probability of being employed at a school despite the conviction.
“I was charged and convicted of a serious assault when I was younger. I’m thinking of doing a TEFL course and going to Thailand to teach. Does anyone else have a criminal record in the UK and has it caused any difficulties for you in Thailand?” asked a user under the name “jimmydragon”.
Most of the people making comments admitted that while some schools required applicants to declare if they had criminal records, few of the institutions did background checks and many did not even ask.
Lead role: Teerakiat Jareonsettasin, a vice-minister for education.
THE UK INITIATIVE
Criminal record checks are obligatory in the UK — under child protection laws, no person of any nationality can work with children without one. “Once you get convicted for a child sex offence in the UK, you can be assured you can never work with children again,” said Ms McCourt of the NCA, which became operational in the UK in October 2013.
But for countries without such stringent child protection measures, the ICPC has been developed as a means of closing the loopholes.
In addition to convictions, the certificate includes warnings, reprimands, cautions and “intelligence checks”, with the latter referring to information held by law enforcement which may not have resulted in a conviction.
“For example, I might call the police one day and say a person was acting suspiciously outside and was talking to a child,” Ms McCourt said. “If the police found that person and the child made an allegation against them, but had insufficient evidence, the police will hold the information.”
If there is a situation of risk, a certificate will not be issued, and the information will be shared with appropriate law enforcement agencies. What decisions are made will be done on a case-by-case basis and schools have to decide what is appropriate.
British nationals or any person who has spent time in the UK can apply for the certificate online at www.acro.police.uk, which costs £60 (about 3,250 baht) and takes 10 days to process.
The UK monitors people who have been convicted by means of notification orders and restrictions, under which the person must register their address and give notification when they intend to travel overseas.
It shares information about people who are judged to be risks to children and have been convicted of certain crimes when it is “necessary to do so”.
“We believe that somebody who is a sex offender is always a sex offender … and there is evidence that will tell you if someone commits a child sex offence, they are likely to do so again,” Ms McCourt said. “But we’re not saying that British citizens are any riskier than any other nationality.”
The certificate is being used in 74 countries and has been officially launched in Kenya, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Ukraine, Spain, India and Poland. Since the scheme started in October 2012, 19,000 ICPCs have been issued globally, Ms McCourt said. In Thailand alone, May and June saw a marked increase in the number of ICPCs issued to British nationals.
“This means the message is being heard and there are Thai schools clearly wanting to take the responsibility,” Ms McCourt said.
Sent home: John Mark Karr, who taught in Thailand, was deported after falsely confessing to murder.
A FIRST STEP
After the first meeting with UK officials earlier this year, the Education Ministry issued guidelines to more than 30,000 public and private schools, including more than 100 international schools.
A letter between the ministry and schools seen by Spectrum said: “There is evidence that those who have been convicted of a child sex offence in the UK tend to seek work opportunities or volunteer work overseas, and many choose to become teachers or other occupations related to children. In order to prevent child sexual abuse, we are asking schools to require British applicants to produce an ICPC certificate.”
Attached was an 11-page brochure with information about the certificate, which was produced by the UK’s Association of Chief Police Officers Criminal Records Office and the NCA’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command.
But there was a problem: schools are deemed as legal entities which have the authority to hire whoever they want and there was initial reluctance to cooperate with the ministry. Some schools which made complaints wanted, out of desperation, to hire teachers as soon as possible, so the ministry provided assistance.
“First we were told: ‘Vice-minister, we’re not sure because schools are deemed independent bodies. We can’t tell them what to do and it will be illegal if we make it a requirement.’ So we had to clarify this by saying children’s welfare is paramount,” Dr Teerakiat said.
He said the measure was the first step towards stricter requirements not only for foreigners, but also for Thais who apply to be teachers. Thailand has no online system for checking criminal records, and individuals or organisations need to ask for the information from the Royal Thai Police.
The initiative is being supported by the Office of the Basic Education Commission’s (Obec) Student Protection Centre, which was established in 2012. Last year, the centre provided assistance to 50,000 students, of which hundreds were cases of sexual abuse; most of the perpetrators were Thai. “Obec is taking this very seriously,” said the centre’s director Thira Bhawangkanantha. “Whoever is found to have sexually assaulted a child will not get away with it.”
Mr Thira said while the ICPC is not mandatory and schools have the authority to pick their own foreign teachers, Obec will act on schools which choose to keep teachers with a history of child sex abuse.
“Do we need to wait for something to happen first?” he asked.
“Yes, they [the teachers] might turn over a new leaf, but we need to lower the risks for our children in all circumstances.”
A CULTURE OF COMPLACENCY
With a growing number of paedophiles being arrested, Thailand has vowed to toughen its screening processes for foreign teachers. Among the most high-profile cases were the arrests of Eric Rosser and John Mark Karr, both Americans.
Rosser was included on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 10 Most Wanted list in connection with child-sex crimes.
He worked as a pianist in American star John Mellencamp’s band before coming to Thailand, where he worked at the Mandarin Oriental Bangkok Hotel and gave private piano lessons at his house in Soi Thong Lor. He was arrested in February 2001 after a tip-off from the FBI.
Karr managed to find teaching jobs in Bangkok before he was arrested and extradited in 2006. He falsely confessed to the murder of beauty pageant contestant JonBenet Ramsey.
The Education Ministry has conducted qualification checks on 7,000 foreign applicants for teaching jobs during the past year, and none were found to have a criminal record.
The response from officials, said Dr Teerakiat, shows a general lack of understanding among Thais on the issue of child protection.
While organisations such as the Centre for the Protection of Children’s Rights Foundation and the Pavena Foundation exist, Thailand has no statutory body for child protection.
“Surveillance and asking them to keep a close eye on suspects — we don’t have that system. It’s a big issue in Western countries and when I look back Thailand is a bit complacent,” Dr Teerakiat said. “You can say we take it for granted, and I think they [foreigners] take advantage of this lack of knowledge, kind of seeing them as civilised people.”
He warned schools which do not act on teachers with a history of child sex abuse are putting children at risk. “It’s not about treatment such as trying to quit smoking; we’re talking about the risk towards children,” said Dr Teerakiat, who worked as a child psychiatrist in the UK for almost 20 years.
“You can’t use the excuse that the person can ‘recover’, because it’s not something that should be given an opportunity.”
MAKE IT A REQUIREMENT
While there have not yet been any concrete measures to enforce stricter background checks on foreign teachers, the Education Ministry says it would welcome the introduction of a system similar to other countries.
“If your country is more stringent in detecting these people, obviously they are going to seek kids elsewhere,” Dr Teerakiat said.
The US Embassy says it can help people who ask for criminal record checks, which can be supplied by the FBI for $18. The process takes about six weeks.
“There is no way that will ever guarantee that a paedophile is not working at your school. But what you can guarantee is a convicted paedophile is not working at your school,” said a US Embassy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “You can guarantee they’re not convicted.”
Applicants can sign a waiver that authorises the school to obtain a background criminal record.
Unlike the UK certificate, the FBI only gives a criminal history and does not provide information about ongoing investigations. Information on anyone in the US who boards an international flight is run through a number of databases.
If someone has a conviction for crimes against children, US security officials in the destination country will be alerted, as part of Operation Angel Watch. The US has a Department of Homeland Security office in Thailand which would be notified. They would then evaluate the crime and provide open-source information to Thai immigration authorities, who can do what they deem appropriate.
“People [with convictions are] coming here, absolutely, and Thai police take it very seriously. We partner with police daily,” the official said. “We definitely have arrested people who have been working at a school, but not any more than Cambodia or Guatemala.”
In the past six years, the embassy has helped with the arrests of four Americans teaching at schools, the source said, adding that paedophilia has one of the highest recidivism rates of any crime.
While the US criminal records cover only people who have been convicted of crimes in the US, a lot of international teachers move from country to country and it’s up to the school to ask the applicant to provide information from other countries.
“The worry that sex offenders might be working in schools can be solved by making it a requirement for applicants to provide a criminal record,” the official said. “And it’s up to Thailand and the school if they will allow the person to work there.” n
DO YOU MEET THE QUALIFICATIONS?
Foreigners can request temporary teaching permits — lasting two years and extendable for up to six years — provided they meet the following qualifications:
1. They are aged over 19.
2. Under Section 44 (B) of the 2003 Teachers and Educational Personnel Council Act they must not have the following “prohibited personal attributes”:
a. Improper behaviour or immorality.
b. Being an incompetent or quasi-incompetent person.
c. If they have been imprisoned, the sentence, in the opinion of the Teachers' Council of Thailand (TCT), brings dishonour to the profession.
3. If the person granted permission to teach violates professional ethics or does not satisfy the professional development standards, conditions and methods specified by the TCT, the person’s permission to teach shall be revoked.
Source: Teachers' Council of Thailand