Section 312: Enslavement

Firm annotation

Section 312 is the enslavement offence and it is built around a purpose. The offender must act in order to reduce a person to slavery or to a condition resembling slavery, and must do one of the listed acts: bringing that person into or sending that person out of the Kingdom, taking that person from any place, buying, selling, disposing of, receiving, or detaining any person. The purpose is what makes the conduct criminal, so the offence is complete once a listed act is done with that purpose and the person need never actually have been enslaved. Buying and receiving are expressly included, which reaches the person at the end of the chain as well as the one who took the victim. The penalty is imprisonment not exceeding seven years and a fine not exceeding 140,000 baht, both imposed rather than in the alternative. Section 312/2 supplies the aggravations: three to ten years and a fine of up to 200,000 baht where the victim is a child not over fifteen, and a ladder graded by result that reaches life imprisonment for grievous bodily harm and the death penalty where the victim dies. Section 312/3 covers the lesser case of dishonestly receiving, disposing of, procuring, seducing or taking away a minor where the slavery purpose is absent. The current rates were set by Section 4 of the Penal Code Amendment Act (No. 26) B.E. 2560.