Migrants from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos reportedly pay human smugglers up to $192 Million a year in order to be smuggled into Thailand. Most of the revenue for smugglers is generated from Myanmar, where migrants pays an estimated $183 Million to human smugglers to bring them into Thailand. Migrants from Cambodia pay $4.7 Million, and people from Laos pay $4.3 Million to the smugglers.
The United Nations estimates that over 500,000 people are smuggled into Thailand each year.
(Prices paid to human smugglers.)
Source: “Transnational Organized Crime in East Asia and the Pacific: A Threat Assessment,” UNODC, April 2013, Executive Summary, page iv.
A threat assessment published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported that there are 275 human trafficking victims in Cambodia and 3,750 victims of trafficking in Thailand each year. Each human trafficking victim generates up to $45,000 in gross revenue for the human trafficker, creating a market of $181 Million a year.
(See more revenue by human traffickers here.)
Source: “Transnational Organized Crime in East Asia and the Pacific: A Threat Assessment,” UNODC, April 2013, Executive Summary, page iv.
Wildlife traffickers are able to get up to 30 kilograms of ivory from a single elephant. If the market value of the a kilogram is $300, then the ivory from a single elephant would generate up to $9,000 on the black market.
According to a report in the Guardian, a corrupt wildlife ranger who allows poachers smuggle ivory would receive a cut of around 20 percent, or $2,000 in the example listed above.
In comparison, a ranger in Cambodia was being paid $30 a month in 2013, or $360 a year in salary. In Thailand, a lack of funds for supplies and gear leads to forest rangers conducting training exercises with tree branches. And in Tanzania, if a poacher is caught, he is subjected to a $13 fine.
Source: Oliver Milman, “Ranger corruption ‘impeding global fight against poaching’,” Guardian, March 27, 2013.
According to a report by the Associated Press, in 2013 there were 100,000 children living in orphanages in Cambodia.
An anti-trafficking organization in the country estimates that up to 70 percent of the orphans have at least one parent living.
Source: Associated Press, “Cambodia shuts foreign-run orphanage accused of beating children, human trafficking,” Washington Post, March 25, 2013.
Cigarette manufacturer British American Tobacco estimates that the illegal tobacco trade in Cambodia generates $16 Million a year in profits each year.
The total value of the legitimate retail tobacco market in Cambodia is between $30 to $40 Million per year.
Source: Philip Heijmans, “Up in smoke,” Bangkok Post, February 26, 2013.
According to environmental officials in Cambodia, loggers and traders are able to make thousands of dollars through illegal logging activities in the country.
Villagers in forest areas cut down trees and sell it to illegal traders who pay up to $1,500 per cubic meter of rosewood. The trader than brings the rosewood to the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, and sell it for $5,000. The wood to then smuggled into Vietnam and eventually into China, where an unprocessed cubic meter of rosewood can be sold to manufactures for $50,000.
Between 1990 and 2010, around 2.8 million hectares of forest was lost to logging in Cambodia.
Source: Paul Vrieze and Neou Vannarin, “Cambodia: shrinking forests breed violence,” GlobalPost, November 12, 2012.
The Voice of America reported that people pay around $50 to bribe local officials in Cambodia to obtain “permits” that allows illegal fishing activities. The permit allows fishing boats to use nets that are hundreds of meters in length are are illegal due to its large size.
In 2010, 321,000 meters of illegal fishing nets was seized in Cambodia.
Source: Say Mony, “Illegal Fishing Threatens Tonie Sap Lake Villagers’ Livelihood,” Voice of America, October 10, 2012.
According to the United States Human Trafficking Report, authorities in Cambodia convicted 20 people for human trafficking activities in 2011. In 2010, authorities convicted 36 people in the country.
Source: Sok Khemara, “Cambodia Remains Source of Trafficking, US Says,” Voice of America, June 20, 2012.
Over the course of two decades, up to 1.4 million hectares of forest land in Cambodia was destroyed by illegal logging, agriculture clearing, and charcoal and firewood gathering.
Source: Borin Noun, “Cambodia’s Amazon under threat,” Asia Sentinel, March 7, 2012.
In 2011, the percentage of counterfeit drugs and medicine in Cambodia was reported to be 0.18 percent, down from the 0.5 percent rate in 2010.
Source: Kong Sothanarith, “US Helps Fight Counterfeit Drugs in Cambodia,” Voice of America, February 27, 2012.
