Four local social welfare
organizations are trying to find a way to help young Cambodian children like
these.
Pratchaya Kerdthong
Four local social welfare organizations want to stop the revolving door that
sees Cambodian street children deported back home return to Pattaya only
weeks later.
At a March 14 Pattaya City Hall meeting, representatives from the Mercy
Center and Ban Sanrak shelters, Nongprue Community Development Office and
Pattaya Social Welfare Department said they want to act as intermediaries
after Cambodian kids are arrested for begging, hawking goods, prostitution
or vagrancy.
City social welfare director Pannee Limcharoen said the plan is to work with
Immigration Police to deliver the children back to areas in Cambodia where
they will be cared for and happy. Otherwise, she said, they will simply
continue to return to Thailand.
The welfare groups want to inspect the Cambodian shelters where deportees
usually are taken to ensure they are safe and secure. For example, Panee
said, shelters for young children should not have residents over age 12.
The meeting was only the first of many that will be required to set up such
a system, but the four representatives attending plan to invite more welfare
agencies to join their cause and get police and immigration officials to
work with them.
