A "long-necked" Padaung woman and child look on as tourists shop in Chiang Dao, Thailand. (Photo: AFP)

Eleven Padaung “long-necked” people who disappeared from villages in northern Thailand might have been lured by a Korean businessman to work in a new tourist attraction in the South, according to a Bangkok press report.

The English-language daily Bangkok Post said a source close to an investigation panel had reported that the businessman had “hired men in uniform to smuggle the Karenni people away from their villages on board an official vehicle.”

The deputy governor of Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province said that if the investigation showed that the 11 Padaung, seven adults and four children, had been lured away from their villages, human trafficking charges would be brought.

The chairman of the Northern Thailand Tourism Association, Chot Naramonton, told The Irrawaddy that he had urged the Mae Hong Son governor to speed up the investigation into the disappearance on July 3 of the Padaung villagers, who originate from Burma’s Karenni State.

Chot said Mae Hong Son officials had contacted the authorities in tourist centers in Chiang Mai, Chonburi and Phuket—“where we suspect they might be induced to stay.”

Padaung “long-necked” people living in villages in northern Thailand are a popular tourist draw and the women, who wear brass rings that elongate their necks, earn 1,500 baht (US $38) a month, administered by a Thai community, the “Union of Hill Tribe Villages.” They also sell handicrafts and souvenirs to visiting tourists. Their men folk have difficulty in finding employment, however.

One village official, Maung Maing, deputy chairman of Huay Sua Tao, where some of the missing Padaung had lived, said the “long-neck” women there hadn’t been paid for two months, and suggested this might be a reason the group had left.

The numbers of tourists visiting Huay Sua Tao and other Padaung villages had dropped this year, Maung Maing said.

In Thailand’s high season, however, “long-neck women” can be a valuable source of income for tour companies. Ten years ago, Thai police raided a tourist village in Chiang Mai Province and charged the businessman who ran it with holding a number of Padaung there against their will.

Northern Thailand has three Padaung villages, with a total of more than 500 inhabitants. Girls traditionally begin to wear neck rings from the age of six, and by the time they reach adulthood the number of rings can be as many as 26.

The Padaung community in Northern Thailand settled there about 10 years ago from Burma, where they suffered discrimination, unemployment and forced labor.

Thai authorities keep a tight control on their movements. Last year, a group of Padaung people who had already been accepted for resettlement by Canada, New Zealand and Finland were denied the opportunity to resettle by the local authorities.