27-2-2025 (BANGKOK) Thai immigration authorities have successfully liberated a 14-year-old girl who had been trafficked to Cambodia and coerced into working for a fraudulent call-centre operation. The rescue culminates a desperate search initiated by the child’s mother after her daughter vanished under false employment promises.
The teenager, identified as Pimchanok, was safely transferred to Thai officials at the Ban Klong Luek border checkpoint in Aranyaprathet district of Sa Kaeo province during a late-night handover on Wednesday. The operation materialised following intense collaboration between Thai immigration police and their Cambodian counterparts after authorities received intelligence suggesting the girl had been transported across the border against her will.
Police Colonel Pattarapong Supaporn, who heads Sa Kaeo’s immigration police, confirmed that the rescue mission commenced after receiving a report from Pluak Daeng police station in Rayong province indicating the likelihood of cross-border trafficking. His direct coordination with senior Cambodian immigration officials proved instrumental in locating the missing teenager.
The rescue effort gained momentum after the girl’s mother published an impassioned plea on Facebook, revealing that an unidentified individual had abducted her daughter with deceptive employment promises. When communication with her child ceased, the distraught parent immediately filed a police report, triggering the cross-border investigation that eventually led to the teenager’s location.
Cambodian authorities discovered Pimchanok in Bavet, a border town in Cambodia’s Svay Rieng province near the Vietnamese frontier, where she had been forced into servitude at a fraudulent call-centre operation. Upon her return to Thailand, the visibly exhausted and malnourished girl disclosed she had been denied nourishment during the gruelling 300-kilometre journey from Svay Rieng to Poi Pet before crossing into Thailand.
During her debriefing, Pimchanok recounted a harrowing five-day detention where she was compelled to work extended hours beginning at 9am daily. Under threats of starvation and physical abuse, she faced the daunting requirement of making at least 100 telephone calls each day. Her testimony alarmingly revealed that numerous other Thai girls of similar age remain trapped in comparable circumstances.
Following her rescue, the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division and Sa Kaeo immigration police conducted extensive interviews with Pimchanok before transferring her to Pluak Daeng police station. Investigators are now intensifying efforts to complete legal proceedings and apprehend those responsible for her trafficking.
In light of this disturbing case, authorities have issued urgent warnings to parents and guardians across Thailand, emphasising the need for heightened vigilance against human trafficking schemes that specifically target vulnerable young people with fraudulent employment opportunities.
