Long-neck village raided
Long Neck Karen women smile as their village in Chiang Mai’s Mae Rim district is raided by police.
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Police raided a long-neck Karen village in Chiang Mai's Mae Rim district yesterday after claims the people were being used to attract tourists. The Karen's work permits allow them to work in agricultural jobs only.
The provincial deputy police commander, Colonel Chamnan Ruadrew, said police had been told an entrepreneur was charging tourists Bt300 to Bt500 each to visit the 20-rai long-neck Karen village. Police found 18 of the long-neck Padaung people - 11 women, two men and five children - living in 10 bamboo houses surrounded by rice fields. Chamnan said that using migrant workers in tasks other than those for which they had permission to remain in the country is punishable by up to three years in jail or a Bt60,000 fine. Landowner Wibul Chaitham, 47, said he hired the Padaung legally to grow rice and allowed tourists to visit their village free of charge. He said they held work permits for agricultural work. They were hired three years ago to tend a mango orchard in Mae Ai district and two months ago were moved to their present village after informing the provincial employment office. Wibul said he provided the Padaung with homes and paid them Bt135 per head per day to grow rice. He said he believed the Karen village could attract tourists as a home-stay village and restaurant, and he admitted making brochures inviting tourists to visit the village to see the hilltribe lifestyle at first hand. He said he scrapped the plan after being heavily criticised, and insisted that the Karen workers did not hold shows to attract tourists. Wibul said the misunderstandings might have arisen from visitors to a nearby hilltribe lifestyle conservation centre that charged entrance fees. They might have assumed his village was part of the paid show because it was in an open area and he never stopped people from entering. However, a local official, Somjai Lawengdiwong, said the lifestyle conservation centre did not charge entrance fees and tourists paid only for goods bought there. Chiang Mai University anthropology researcher Kwanchewan Buadaeng said the long-neck Karen were Burmese nationals who entered Thailand either as war refugees or migrant workers. Some in Mae Hong Son province were not allowed to leave the area.
Ekkapong Praditpong The Nation Chiang Mai
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