Thai official stresses cooperation with China, other ASEAN nations to address issues such as human trafficking.
Thailand is willing to enhance prosecutorial cooperation with China and other countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to address transnational crimes, especially human trafficking, said a Thai official.
“Nowadays, the number of transnational crimes rises every day,” said Charern Tanchatchawan, incoming director-general of the International Affairs Department of the Office of the Attorney General of Thailand.
Among the most serious problems facing ASEAN countries and China are corruption, cybercrime, and financial crime, said Charern, in an interview with China Daily on the sidelines of the 15th China-ASEAN Prosecutors-General Conference.
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The Sept 22-24 event, which was held in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, brought together the region’s top prosecutors to discuss key topics under the theme “Combating Money Laundering and Corruption, and Recovering Assets in the Technological Age”.
Noting that the Thai government has enacted tougher laws targeting money laundering and cybercrime, Charern said the Southeast Asian country is doing its best to resolve the issues.
“In the past five years, the number of people extradited from Thailand to China has increased significantly, with most of them related to financial crime and cybercrime,” he said.
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Charern, who is expected to assume his new role in October, said he will pay particular attention to the anti-human trafficking cooperation with China, given that a case involving a Chinese national earlier this year had triggered widespread public concerns both in Thailand and China.
“These concerns are not only on human trafficking but also are having a negative effect on Thailand’s tourism industry,” he said.
Charern said Thailand is also willing to extradite suspects to China because the two countries have the same goal of fighting crime together.
Contact the writer at kelly@chinadailyapac.com
