"Thailand is well-known for its pristine beaches and spicy food. But this is not what attracts low skilled migrants from neighboring countries into the country. Prospects of work and security, higher wages than they can earn at home and an opportunity to explore new places and people instead pull migrants from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and even China into Thailand. Thailand?s rapid economic growth has created wealth and opportunities. Development has resulted in increased demand for labour, or to be more precise, cheap low skilled foreign labour to do dirty, dangerous and difficult work that Thais often will not themselves do. To sustain a growing economy and in order to compete in international markets for low cost export of goods, Thailand continues to be dependent on a cheap migrant workforce of more than 2 million people. However for more than two decades since the early 1990s, policy makers in Thailand have not, at least until more recently, been willing or able to effectively regularise migration flows into the country. As a result, and left without legal and official means to enter Thailand, migrant workers, employers and industries employing migrants turn to smugglers to get workers into the country to fill significant gaps in the labour market. These smugglers, usually referred to as ?brokers,? may be complete strangers to the migrant workers themselves. But sometimes they are closely linked to friends and relatives. Links with officials on both sides of Thailand?s borders is an undeniable reality. The push factors in migrant home countries that bring them to Thailand include poverty, a lack of opportunities for work and earning money and repressive political environments - sometimes even physical repression from their own governments. When migrants hear stories from friends and relatives about well-paid jobs in Thailand, their decision to migrate is inevitable. Yet without legal documents, knowledge about Thailand?s employment system and an inability to read and speak the Thai language, migrants rely on brokers not only to smuggle them into the country but also, unless they already have strong networks in Thailand, to find them work, accommodation and a new life. For too many, this position of vulnerability means that before they even realise it, migrants have been sold into a situation where they are working long hours without rest or pay on a fishing boat, their freedom of movement is restricted on a Snap Shot Stories from Invisible Victims of Trafficking in Thailand 7 construction site, they have been turned into a virtual slave or, in the most extreme cases, forced to provide sexual services against their will. Migrant workers who find themselves in such situations of exploitation often report fear in approaching the police or other Thai government officials for assistance as they are undocumented and fear they will be arrested, extorted, abused or deported. All of these outcomes lessen a migrant?s opportunity to earn money for their families back home, burden them with more debt or even, in some cases, increase their risk of human rights abuses further. For others, seeking assistance from the police sees them sent back to their employers where severe punishment or even death awaits them. Workers who are victims of exploitation report that police appear as a key enemy and perceive many officials as deeply involved in systems of exploitation of which they have become victims..."