Mekong Migration Network

In late 2009 MMN launched a new project entitled “Mekong Vocabulary on Labour Migration – promoting a common language understanding in the region and building a regional network for safe migration in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS).” The initiative is supported by the Toyota Foundation Asian Neighbors Program.

Millions of migrant workers in the GMS continue to work and live without any form of immigration status or sufficient labour protection. In order to formulate coherent responses, cross-border and multi-sector collaboration are crucial. Existing efforts are sometimes hindered by a lack of common understanding of the issues and relevant terminologies. This is a result of both language barriers and differing, and sometimes conflicting, perspectives on migration issues.

Hence the project aims to increase common understanding of terminologies by filling an information gap and providing a forum for informative discussion and collaborative application of these terms among participating civil society groups. Three small workshops will be held for the project partners to discuss the various terminologies and their definition of the terms in English and in the GMS languages.

As part of the project MMN will also produce a booklet describing various labour protections in the respective GMS labour laws. This will be used as a reference guide for civil society and government agencies to better understand policies of neighbouring countries. The direct beneficiaries of this project will be civil society organisations working on migration issues in the GMS. However, publications from the project will also be used for government meetings and training – thus there is potential to help policy dialogue in the GMS become more in-depth and be based on mutual understanding.

The first workshop was held on 26-27th February, 2010, in Bangkok, Thailand, with around 20 project members from the six GMS countries. During the workshop project members participated in several activities, including identifying differences in understanding migration terms, and collectively making a detailed work plan. The second workshop is scheduled for September 2010.

MMN and Mekong Institute (MI) conducted a regional training course on Labor Migration Management in the Greater Mekong Sub-region from the 1st to 18th of December, 2009, following the success of the 1st training in 2008. This training course aimed to enhance capacity of policy makers and implementers of concerned ministries in labour migration management and to foster cooperation among the concerned countries and ministries. 18 government officials from the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Social Welfare, and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Interior /Immigration, Police and other agencies in the six countries actively participated in the 3 week long training course.

The course curriculum included the overview of and discussion on various migration patterns, global/regional trends and responses, international standards, labour and social issues, bilateral/multilateral agreements and policy formulation.

Various teaching methodologies were employed, such as group work, role plays, debate, roundtable discussion, and exposure trip.

Participants were divided into small mix-country groups, and at the end of the course, they presented their concrete action plans which they commit to carry out in succeeding 6 months as well broader action plans that they hope to implement in 3-5 years. This is to encourage participants to translate new ideas acquired during the training course into practice at their work back home. MMN and MI will follow up on the action plans and provide necessary supports.

MMN and MI will assess the outcome and further revise the training curriculums for future training courses. In addition to the 3 week long training course, MMN and MI plan to co-organise more activities on labour migration in the GMS in 2010-2011.

Opening ceremony

Mapping migration in the GMS

Working with flip charts

Case studies

Role play for “changing working conditions”

A migrants’ support agency has reported allegations of official mistreatment of migrant workers in Thailand ranging from payments to police in return for their release from custody, constant “humiliating” police harassment, to the rape of women detainees by Thai Army Rangers.

The 234-page-report was prepared by the Mekong Migration Network and released at a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Bangkok last week.

It focused on the issue of arrest, detention, deportation, return and reintegration of migrants in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS).

The report described how arrests of migrant workers in Thailand can happen at any time, day or night. Migrant workers constantly run the risk of arrest while at home, in their workplace, during their leisure time or while visiting places of worship.

Even at temples, migrants were not free from arrest. During October 2006, in Chiang Mai several hundred were detained by police while attending temples to celebrate the end of Lent, the report said.

Local Thais expressed their displeasure through a local website, saying immigration official should respect the sanctity of temples and not make arrests during religious ceremonies.

One Cambodian migrant fisherman in Rayong province told researchers most arrests of fishermen began around midnight, as officials believed they would not create so much commotion if undertaken at night.

However, the majority of migrants reported being offered the opportunity to pay for their release following an arrest, usually before they were taken to the police station.

The amount they were asked to pay varied between Bt200 and Bt5,000, with an average of around Bt1,000.

In some cases women had their hair cut by police. Migrants reported cases of immigration officers in Tak province’s Mae Sot district cutting women’s hair and shaving men’s heads, saying the migrants would then be recognised if they tried to return to Thailand after being deported.

For Burmese women whose long hair is part of their cultural make-up, having it cut in such an undignified manner is extremely humiliating.

Full body searches of migrant women during arrest in isolated areas by male officials is clearly inappropriate and open to abuse, the report said.

It said women migrants in isolated border areas remained particularly vulnerable to abuse. In Mae Sot young women had complained the body searches were physically intrusive and abusive. In 1999, a group of women from Burma were abused similarly in a small hut in the same province.

On 12 July 1999, a group of 50 illegal migrant workers from Burma were being deported near Ban Lan village, west of Chiang Mai’s Phang district. The migrants were put under the care of the Thai Army Rangers at Ban Lan.

The officer in charge separated 11 women from the group, and then ordered his men to take the rest of the migrants to the Nong Tao border point nearby. The report charges he took the women one by one into his room and physically molested each one, raping two of them.

Migrants registered with the authorities and holding a valid migrant workers’ card are required to carry this card with them at all times. The migrant workers’ card confers limited legal rights. While Thai citizens are fined for not carrying their national ID card, migrants lose their legal status in Thailand if they are caught without their card, leading directly to their arrest, detention and deportation.

The migrant workers’ card is only valid as an immigration document when the arresting authority can verify the migrant works for the employer named on the card, and in the type of work and geographic area designated on the card.

In order to combat human rights violations experienced by migrants, the Mekong Migration Network’s chairperson, Jackie Pollock urged the Thai government and others in the Greater Mekong Subregion to eliminate situations which can lead to abusive and exploitative working conditions and leave migrants vulnerable to arrest, detention and deportation.

She asked authorities to reform the procedures to ensure migrant workers treatment is humane, transparent and subject to legal oversight.

This report was a third edition in the series Migration in the Greater Mekong Subregion : Resource Book (1st edition published in 2002; 2nd edition in 2005) and is in response to rapidly changing issues relating to migration in the subregion, including changes to legislation and policy relating to migration.

In Thailand, the number of unregistered migrants from Burma, Cambodia and Laos is not known, but the estimate suggests that at any one time there are between 800,000 and 1.2 million unregistered migrants present in Thailand.

By Pongphon Sarnsamak

“How do you empower those who exist outside legal protection? At the grassroots level, how do you empower migrants who have no legal means to protect themselves?”

February 23rd 2009, in the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Bangkok, Thailand: the Mekong Migration Network, launched its third resource book on migration in the Greater Mekong Subregion, focusing on arrest detention and deportation. A total of 68 participants came to celebrate the launch with MMN, including UN officials, NGO staffers, community activists and academics and the event attracted a good deal of media attention.

The launch opened with a spectacular performance by members of Empower Foundation, entitled “Waving Not Drowning” depicting the unnecessary arrest and flight of a sex worker by a group of government officials. The sex worker escaped to the backing of the song “I Will Survive”, serving a powerful reminder that not all rescues are wanted and that many are perceived as arrests. A narrator, followed explaining that sex workers need protection, but not rescue.

Following this rousing performance, Ms Reiko Harima, MMN Secretariat provided a background and summary of the MMN research, highlighting the importance of the book’s findings. Ms Jackie Pollock, MMN Chair proceeded to give an overview of the international human rights framework on arrest, detention and deportation, and explained that while doing the research, very few people ever referred to international framework concerning arrest, detention, deportation. Pollock also commented “Whether you are classified as an undocumented migrant, smuggled migrant, or victim of human trafficking, ultimately the responses are identical: deportation. For undocumented migrants and smuggled the response is immediate deportation. For trafficked persons, the response is deportation after a delay.”

Case studies of arrest, detention and deportation were presented by MMN representatives, Ms Han Jialing presented on China, Ms Huynh Thi Ngoc Tuyet on Vietnam, Mr Chanrith Ang on Cambodia and Mr Sutthiphong Khongkaphon on Burmese migrants in Thailand, showing the commonalities of abuse, humiliation, blurriness between arrest of undocumented migrants and rescue of trafficked victims, and randomness and ultimately the ineffectiveness of current practices relating to arrest, detention and deportation of migrants across the GMS.

The MMN resource book was launched in a very timely manner, at the height of news coverage on the dangers inherent in migration within the GMS, and as the global economic crisis is beginning to see swathes of job losses across the region. Talk of protectionism and “saving national jobs first” is growing, and with this so is the risk of arrest, detention and deportation of migrant workers as they try to seek work in larger labour forces of receiving countries, escaping unemployment and poverty at home, or as retrenchment in receiving countries sees migrants pushed to return to sending countries. As migrants today are becoming increasingly vulnerable to arrest, detention and deportation, the MMN resource book is an exceptionally valuable tool to policy makers and practitioners across the board.

Comments by many of the participants in the launch were solution orientated. “We hear the same stories so often, we know the conditions and abuse migrants face, but what can we do?” or “How do you empower those who have no legal means to protect themselves?” These are precisely the questions the MMN resource book sets out to answer. The resource book meticulously documents the laws and policies governing migrant workers in the Greater Mekong Subregion at the national, regional and international level and their practical application on the ground. The book notes that far from existing outside the law, there are many international standards which apply to migrants during arrest, detention and deportation which can and should be utilised at the national level. The book critically examines the current restrictive policies which leave the majority of migrants with no option but to migrant through informal channels, and urges the lifting of such restriction and strengthening of protection for all these migrants. Ultimately, if there is zero tolerance of abuse and exploitation at the small and medium levels, the more extreme cases of exploitation will be prevented from the outset.

             The Resource Book is downloadable from the MMN Publication page. 

                                                 See the Executive Summary of the Resrouce Book in the Advocacy page. 

We’re afraid that there were some typos in recently published MMN publication namely the Migration in the Greater Mekong Subregion: Resource Book, Indepth Study on Arrest, Detention and Deportation (published in July 2008) and the proceedings of the MMN workshop on Migrants, Migration and Development in the GMS.

In this regards, for those who downloaded the materials before 10th of December, 2008, we’d like to ask you for your help in making the following two corrections:

• Resource Book: Migration in the Greater Mekong Sub-region
In-depth Study: Arrest, Detention and Deportation

p.182
(original) 49. That host governments deport migrants if they cannot guarantee the deportees’ safety and security in their countries of origin.
–>
(correct) 49. That host governments never deport migrants if they cannot guarantee the deportees’ safety and security in their countries of origin.

• Migrants, Migration and Development in the Greater Mekong Sub-region
Proceedings of the Workshop, 15-16 July 2008, Vientiane, Lao PDR

p.19, the last paragraph
(original) The Plenary ended with the moderator Ms Chou Bun Eng commenting that without a commitment to
–>
(correct) The Plenary ended with the moderator Ms Chou Bun Eng commenting that without a commitment to uphold human rights there can be no development.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.