The Union is an unofficial organization known throughout parts of southern Thailand for aiding migrant workers and preventing trafficking. On November 27, the Union was informed that 8 Mon women were reluctantly working at a local brothel. The following evening, Union members, pretending to be customers, went to the brothel and requested Mon Prostitutes. The owner, hesitant at first, confirmed that the brothel had 8 Mon women available and charged the members baht per women for one hour.
While in the rooms, members said that the women begged for help and cried. During sessions at this brothel, employees lock the doors from the outside until the allotted time is finished. In efforts to shorten the sessions and attempt to free the women, Union members prematurely banged on their respective doors until brothel employees unlocked them. Union members then forcibly negotiated the release of 8 women, but were only able to rescue 4.
The freed victims explained to Union members that the Thai Police had arranged for the 8 women to work at the brothel. The women had originally been travelling with a trafficker from Burma to find factory work in Thailand. Although, upon arrival in Chumphon, the trafficker took them to the local police station and from there they were sold to the brothel.
The victims believe that their trafficker and several other brokers and traffickers, have a special relationship with certain officers at the Chumphon police station. After the raid, Union members deliberated about returning to the brothel to save the remaining 4 women. The Union decided to send members back to the brothel, although upon arrival men -who many members recognized as uniformed local police officers- were escorting women to a bus.
Union members followed the bus to a house and watched the men move the women inside. Then as the men rested on the front lawn and drank beer, Union members snuck into the house through the back. Inside the house they found 28 women in one room with their mouths taped shut and legs bound with rope.
