‘Selfless': Aussie tradie remembered after tragic death in Thailand
An aspiring Australian Muay Thai boxer had been celebrating with friends after an intense training camp when he tragically drowned while swimming off a fishing charter boat in Thailand.
Melbourne roof plumber Corey Walsh, 22, was swimming near the tourist island of Koh Racha Yai, south of Phuket, last Tuesday when he was dragged under the water.
In an emotional interview with news.com.au, Mr Walsh's younger sister Charleigh described her brother as 'selfless and loyal', revealing he had been on a much-anticipated holiday with six of his closest friends.
He had travelled there with one of the group members to complete intense training at the Rattachai Muay Thai camp, which they had been preparing for since January 1. His strict training regimen meant he had been completely sober for more than five months.
Corey was due to spend four weeks in Thailand and had just completed the first two weeks of his trip before his tragic death. The other five friends had arrived just three days earlier and planned to celebrate his achievements with a chartered fishing trip.
Charleigh said she had grown up 'side-by-side' with her older brother.
'We shared our whole childhood together. He was very caring and protective, as big brothers are,' she said.
'Corey would light up any room he walked into. He had a strong mindset and saw mistakes as growth. He will always be my best friend, his passing has left a void that cannot be filled, Charleigh said.
'There was an unspoken loyalty that survived every argument, it was stronger than anything. Nothing was stronger than the love we had for each other,' she added.
Charleigh laughed as she recalled her brother as being 'outgoing, very outgoing.'
'He was a bit of a s**tstirrer,' she said.
'He had his own personal slang. He'd come home and ask how your day was and if you said you'd had a bad day he'd ask you 'are you loving it' over and over until you caved.
'He'd go to work on a Monday morning when the boys were all tired and he'd go around and say 'are you loving it' to get under their skin,' she chuckled.
She revealed his friends had 'forever loving it' tattooed in Corey's memory.
Charleigh recalled she was at work last week when she received the devastating news that her only sibling had died.
'I was at work on Tuesday and it was around 7pm. My parents had received a call from one of his friends that was with him.'
They told the Walsh family that 'Corey and his friends were on a fishing charter off the coast of Koh Racha Yai.
'They were fishing on the boat and celebrating their trip when they stopped to have lunch and go for a snorkel.'
Charleigh said the family was still waiting on confirmation surrounding the exact circumstances of his death.
'We're still waiting for his friends to get home to learn more about it,' she said.
She told news.com.au that his six friends had struggled to get flights home and were 'traumatised' by the ordeal.
Charleigh said she had also been stuck in a state of numbness since receiving the tragic news. 'It doesn't feel real. I'm still in shock.'
'The support we are receiving from family, friends and dozens of people we have never met has been helping us cope. We are so grateful for everyone,' she said.
Colleagues from Corey's work have set-up a GoFundMe that has so far raised over $14,000.
'We would like to help his family and show how much love he brought to this world,' they said in a heartbreaking statement.
Corey was due to return home this weekend.
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She was covered in scars from beatings but otherwise healthy, the team said. Escaped workers say they were given little food or clean water and threatened with beatings or death if quotas were unmet. For Palit, 42, a former clothing shop owner from northern Thailand, the risk of electric shock was never far away during his six-month detention. He had been attracted to the promise of a high-paying administrative job in South Korea, but instead was flown to Mandalay in Myanmar. Fearing he was being trafficked for his organs, it was a relief to know he could keep them, he said. Instead, he was forced to spend his time creating fake profiles to engage a minimum of five people every day in online relationships. "I would talk to the target like 'Baby please invest in this, you will get good profit,'" said Palit, who wanted only his first name disclosed. 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Jinnmonca said he believes the most effective way to protect against trafficking and the scams is to imprison the masterminds at the top. "If (we do) not fix this problem, it will only double," he said. Instead, he said, the workers are targeted by authorities. When Palit, who is soft-spoken and quick to smile, was released from a scam centre in November 2023 alongside 328 other people, 10 of them were arrested. They were accused of being complicit in cybercrime and kidnapping because their language skills gave them leadership roles in the compound's living quarters. But they were victims as well, said Jinnmonca, and such arrests mean workers rescued from the clutches of criminal gangs in one country may face prison in another. Most of Jaruwat Jinnmonca's anti-trafficking work used to focus on helping victims swept into prostitution. Now, survivors of cyber-scam compounds dominate his time as founder of the Thailand-based Immanuel Foundation. Hundreds of thousands of victims are trapped in cyber-crime scam farms that sprung up during the COVID-19 pandemic in Southeast Asia, according to the United Nations. Conditions are reported to be brutal, with the detainees ruled by violence. Photos on Jinnmonca's phone show victims with purple and blue bruises, bleeding wounds and even the lifeless body of someone who had been severely beaten or was dead. He has received reports of seven killings from inside compounds this year alone and reports of other forced labourers killing themselves, worn out from waiting for help that may never arrive. "They want to go back home," he said, and if they do not follow orders, the gang leaders will abuse them until they die. "Some, when they cannot escape, they jump off the seventh or 10th floor. They want to die." Criminal gangs cashed in on pandemic-induced economic vulnerability and even now, workers come from as far as Ethiopia and India, duped into thinking a paid-for journey to Thailand will yield a worthwhile employment opportunity. Instead they spend their days tethered to technology, generating fake social media profiles and compelling stories to swindle money from unsuspecting people, contributing to a cyber-crime economy that accounted for $US8 ($A12) trillion in losses in 2023. In February, under pressure from China after a well-known Chinese actor, Wang Xing, was trafficked, Myanmar authorities and the Thai government collaborated in the biggest rescue operation yet. By shutting down the internet and stopping fuel supplies and electricity in Myawaddy, Myanmar, authorities were able to debilitate several compounds, leading to the release of more than 7,000 workers. Their ordeal, however, is not yet over. Many of them are waiting to be repatriated in holding centres where access to food and medicine is said to be scarce. The Immanuel Foundation has rescued more than 2700 people since 2020. "We bring them to hospital for a health check and then take them to talk to law enforcement," Jinnmonca said, as his phone vibrated for a third time in just 30 minutes. The call was from one of his 12 staff members reporting that the team succeeded in extracting a Thai woman from a scam centre in Cambodia. She was covered in scars from beatings but otherwise healthy, the team said. Escaped workers say they were given little food or clean water and threatened with beatings or death if quotas were unmet. For Palit, 42, a former clothing shop owner from northern Thailand, the risk of electric shock was never far away during his six-month detention. He had been attracted to the promise of a high-paying administrative job in South Korea, but instead was flown to Mandalay in Myanmar. Fearing he was being trafficked for his organs, it was a relief to know he could keep them, he said. Instead, he was forced to spend his time creating fake profiles to engage a minimum of five people every day in online relationships. "I would talk to the target like 'Baby please invest in this, you will get good profit,'" said Palit, who wanted only his first name disclosed. Well known among forced labourers, Jinnmonca's personal Facebook pings with messages, typically four new people each day, begging for help and sharing stories like Palit's. The cross-border nature of trafficking rescue makes the repatriation process difficult and slow, said Amy Miller, regional director for Southeast Asia at Acts of Mercy International, which supports survivors. "They are complaining about the wait time," she said. "There are people who are sick that are maybe not getting treatment. "It's just a tinder box ready to go up in flames." The problem of how to process and provide for so many victims is deterring Myanmar's law enforcement from further rescue operations, Miller said, so the potential for future operations is unclear. "I don't feel super confident that this is actually a reform of the compounds or that they're going to shut down," she said. Jinnmonca said he believes the most effective way to protect against trafficking and the scams is to imprison the masterminds at the top. "If (we do) not fix this problem, it will only double," he said. Instead, he said, the workers are targeted by authorities. When Palit, who is soft-spoken and quick to smile, was released from a scam centre in November 2023 alongside 328 other people, 10 of them were arrested. They were accused of being complicit in cybercrime and kidnapping because their language skills gave them leadership roles in the compound's living quarters. But they were victims as well, said Jinnmonca, and such arrests mean workers rescued from the clutches of criminal gangs in one country may face prison in another. Most of Jaruwat Jinnmonca's anti-trafficking work used to focus on helping victims swept into prostitution. Now, survivors of cyber-scam compounds dominate his time as founder of the Thailand-based Immanuel Foundation. Hundreds of thousands of victims are trapped in cyber-crime scam farms that sprung up during the COVID-19 pandemic in Southeast Asia, according to the United Nations. Conditions are reported to be brutal, with the detainees ruled by violence. Photos on Jinnmonca's phone show victims with purple and blue bruises, bleeding wounds and even the lifeless body of someone who had been severely beaten or was dead. He has received reports of seven killings from inside compounds this year alone and reports of other forced labourers killing themselves, worn out from waiting for help that may never arrive. "They want to go back home," he said, and if they do not follow orders, the gang leaders will abuse them until they die. "Some, when they cannot escape, they jump off the seventh or 10th floor. They want to die." Criminal gangs cashed in on pandemic-induced economic vulnerability and even now, workers come from as far as Ethiopia and India, duped into thinking a paid-for journey to Thailand will yield a worthwhile employment opportunity. Instead they spend their days tethered to technology, generating fake social media profiles and compelling stories to swindle money from unsuspecting people, contributing to a cyber-crime economy that accounted for $US8 ($A12) trillion in losses in 2023. In February, under pressure from China after a well-known Chinese actor, Wang Xing, was trafficked, Myanmar authorities and the Thai government collaborated in the biggest rescue operation yet. By shutting down the internet and stopping fuel supplies and electricity in Myawaddy, Myanmar, authorities were able to debilitate several compounds, leading to the release of more than 7,000 workers. Their ordeal, however, is not yet over. Many of them are waiting to be repatriated in holding centres where access to food and medicine is said to be scarce. The Immanuel Foundation has rescued more than 2700 people since 2020. "We bring them to hospital for a health check and then take them to talk to law enforcement," Jinnmonca said, as his phone vibrated for a third time in just 30 minutes. The call was from one of his 12 staff members reporting that the team succeeded in extracting a Thai woman from a scam centre in Cambodia. She was covered in scars from beatings but otherwise healthy, the team said. Escaped workers say they were given little food or clean water and threatened with beatings or death if quotas were unmet. For Palit, 42, a former clothing shop owner from northern Thailand, the risk of electric shock was never far away during his six-month detention. He had been attracted to the promise of a high-paying administrative job in South Korea, but instead was flown to Mandalay in Myanmar. Fearing he was being trafficked for his organs, it was a relief to know he could keep them, he said. Instead, he was forced to spend his time creating fake profiles to engage a minimum of five people every day in online relationships. "I would talk to the target like 'Baby please invest in this, you will get good profit,'" said Palit, who wanted only his first name disclosed. Well known among forced labourers, Jinnmonca's personal Facebook pings with messages, typically four new people each day, begging for help and sharing stories like Palit's. The cross-border nature of trafficking rescue makes the repatriation process difficult and slow, said Amy Miller, regional director for Southeast Asia at Acts of Mercy International, which supports survivors. "They are complaining about the wait time," she said. "There are people who are sick that are maybe not getting treatment. "It's just a tinder box ready to go up in flames." The problem of how to process and provide for so many victims is deterring Myanmar's law enforcement from further rescue operations, Miller said, so the potential for future operations is unclear. "I don't feel super confident that this is actually a reform of the compounds or that they're going to shut down," she said. Jinnmonca said he believes the most effective way to protect against trafficking and the scams is to imprison the masterminds at the top. "If (we do) not fix this problem, it will only double," he said. Instead, he said, the workers are targeted by authorities. When Palit, who is soft-spoken and quick to smile, was released from a scam centre in November 2023 alongside 328 other people, 10 of them were arrested. They were accused of being complicit in cybercrime and kidnapping because their language skills gave them leadership roles in the compound's living quarters. But they were victims as well, said Jinnmonca, and such arrests mean workers rescued from the clutches of criminal gangs in one country may face prison in another.
