Mekong Migration Network

Local and international labour advocacy groups yesterday issued an open letter to the prime minister calling on him to stop mass repatriation of illegal Burmese immigrant workers, and to investigate persecution against them on their home soil.

The workers, in Kayin state through which they are sent back, have had money extorted from them by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), which has a stronghold there, the letter said. Many had been “transferred” to labour agencies for later smuggling into Thailand.

Women have been forced or lured into prostitution, while many men are made to work as porters for the Burmese military, said the letter, which was signed jointly by Human Rights Watch and the influential State Enterprises Workers Relations Confederation of Thailand.

Thailand is overhauling its immigrant labour industry by registering those lawfully hired by Thai employers, and sending home those not registered by a February 28 deadline. Those missing the deadline are sent home through the Burmese town of Myawaddy, in Kayin state across the Moei River from Mae Sot, Tak province, with cooperation from Rangoon.

Among the many violations of the workers’ human rights, mainly by the DKBA, are torture, assaults, brutal acts and violation of human dignity, said the letter. It also claimed that sweep arrests and repatriation of workers were not effective, and had instead driven those missing the registration into hiding and to continue working illegally in Thailand.

The groups called on the Thai government to investigate violation of the workers’ human rights and punish officials found guilty. Also, repatriation should cease immediately until the verification of claims about the violations is complete, and Thai officials should stop sweep searches and arrests and reopen nationwide registration.

By The Nation
Published on July 20, 2010

Illegal Burmese migrant workers deported back to eastern Burma from Thailand are being asked to pay border crossing fees by the pro-junta Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) militia.

The group has set up unofficial border checkpoints in the Karen state border town of Myawaddy, across the Moei river from Thailand’s Mae Sot. Illegal Burmese migrants are now returning in droves after Thailand launched a police crackdown last month.

A Thailand-based Burmese labour rights group said that around 200 migrants each day are crossing the border, many of whom were arrested in Mae Sot and Bangkok, despite Burmese authorities accepting only 400 per week.

The remaining are therefore forced to go through unofficial DKBA checkpoints, which charge 1200 kyat (US$40). Migrant workers often earn less than half of Thailand’s 206 baht ($US6) per day minimum wage.

Moe Swe, general secretary of the Yaung Chi Oo labour group, said the Burmese government has always denied the amount of migrants in Thailand and therefore didn’t want to accept them back.

“This could also be due to concerns that [the Burmese junta’s] political image will be damaged if they accept back a lot of migrant workers and then have a high rate of unemployment in the country.”

He added that the reluctance of the Burmese government meant that Thailand was forcibly sending the migrants through DKBA checkpoints.

A DKBA official at one of the checkpoints in Myawaddy told DVB that different charges were placed on different people.

“We charge 400 baht [US$12] to those arrested in Mae Sot and 1200 baht to those from Bangkok because they earn different amounts,” he said. “I don’t think it’s right to criticise us for charging the money; we do things according to our own policy. If someone wants to come through our checkpoint, then pay us the money. If they don’t want to pay, then don’t come across.”

A Burmese migrant worker said: “If someone gets arrested [in Thailand] for having no documents, then he or she will be detained in jail for one day and then get deported. There are two DKBA checkpoints [run by DKBA brigades] 16 and 999 and they are charging 1200 baht from the migrants. That is blood-sucking.”

Another migrant worker said that most Burmese nationals arrested for illegally staying in Thailand prefer to be deported back via the DKBA checkpoints because it is easier for them to cross the border back into Thailand through those checkpoints.

Moe Swe said the Thai government’s crackdown on migrants is not effective, given that they are still coming back into Thailand after deportation.

“Also, the current [migrant registration] system which gives employers the control over the labour card should be changed,” he added. “Migrants will become more interested in registering if they are allowed to apply for the labour cards themselves.”

“Secondly, the [national verification process] between the Thai and the Burmese government [is flawed] because the migrants don’t trust the Burmese government and [cannot afford] the high costs of the process. We would like to suggest the government thoroughly revises the system.”

By NAW NOREEN

Mae Sot, Thailand - Truckloads of caged Burmese have become a common sight in Mae Sot, a checkpoint along the Thai-Myanmar border tasked with deporting thousands of undocumented migrant workers from Thailand in the coming months.

Up to 100 undocumented Burmese migrant workers are being detained each night at the Mae Sot immigration jail and then deported, officially or unofficially, across the Moei River to Myanmar, border sources said.

Myanmar immigration authorities only accept 400 of the deportees over the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge per month, taking 100 every Monday.

Hundreds of others are being deported unofficially across the Moei River to a checkpoint controlled by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), a militia under the command of Myanmar’s military junta, which charges the returnees a 1,200-baht (37.50-dollar) re-entry fee.

“If they can pay the 1,200 baht, they are released right away, but if they cannot pay, they are kept in barracks, and brokers will contact their friends and family to arrange payment,” said Moe Swe, director of the New Dawn Workers Association in Mae Sot, 350 kilometres north of Bangkok.

Some of the migrant workers are kept for days at the militia’s compound until they pay up. Others are forced to work to pay off the fee, said Moe Swe, whose association monitors labour abuses in Thailand.

Those who can pay the fee, are charged another 10,000 to 15,000 baht by brokers to arrange a return trip to Thailand to seek illegal employment again, sources said.

“We are very concerned about these extortion rackets being run by the DKBA, and it appears that Thai officials are profiting from this,” said Philip Robertson, a labour expert at New York-based Human Rights Watch. “They are deliberately sending people to a gate where its known that people are being extorted.”

In its latest effort to crack down on undocumented migrant workers, the Thai government has targeted 300,000 Cambodian, Lao and Myanmar labourers who have not met a deadline to register for legal status for deportation between June to August.

Most of the deportees would be from Myanmar. An estimated 2-3 million Myanmar nationals work in Thailand, providing cheap and pliant labour for factories, farms, fisheries, households, bars and brothels.

Criticized for turning a blind eye to exploitation of this migrant labour force by employers and human traffickers, the Thai government has implemented policies over the past two decades to provide semi-legal status for at least some of these foreign workers.

Besides Burmese, there are also an estimated 800,000 Cambodians and Lao working in Thailand, which is a veritable capitalist success story compared with its formerly communist and socialist neighbours, Cambodia and Myanmar, and still communist Laos.

Representing nearly 5-6 per cent of Thailand’s total population of 64 million, this foreign labour force has become a backbone of the economy, without which many labour-intensive industries would collapse.

In Mae Sot, for example, an estimated 200 factories employ 40,000 migrant workers from Myanmar, half of them illegal, who earn about 60 baht a day, less than half the minimum wage set for Thais.

The crackdown on illegal labour intensified after Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on June 2 ordered the establishment of a centre to arrest, prosecute and deport aliens “working underground.”

All migrant workers from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar had been given until March 31 to register for legal status under the Nationality Verification Process, part of a new policy to cooperate with the neighbouring governments in providing alien labourers with work permits.

According the Thai Labour Ministry, 812,984 Burmese have registered under the programme, but only 80,435 have been approved by the Myanmar government. Thousands more have refused to apply for fear Myanmar authorities will extort money from their relatives at home.

Applications are sent to the neighbouring governments, which verify the applicants’ nationalities and provide them with passports.

The governments of Cambodia and Laos have facilitated the process by sending officials to Thailand to provide their citizens with the needed documentation. But Myanmar has refused to do this, forcing its citizens to come to border points such as Mae Sot to receive their certification.

Myanmar certification agencies, allegedly with close connections to Myanmar and Thai border authorities, have been set up at the border checkpoints to facilitate the process for 5,000 to 10,000 baht per person. The official fees for a Myanmar passport and Thai visa are only 600 baht, leaving a hefty profit margin.

“Normally when the Thai government announces a new policy on Burmese labourers, it benefits local authorities,” Moe Swe said.

By : Peter Janssen

The Thai government is in the midst of implementing a new migrant labor policy, one that has seen a rise in police sweeps and raids on factories that employ workers from Burma, Laos and Cambodia. But human rights advocates say the arrests are creating fear among migrants, as many try to meet the new legal requirements.

On a recent Sunday morning at a school in central Bangkok, Burmese migrant workers gather to learn new skills such as languages and typing. It is also a place for them to hear the latest news. The biggest news for many is a recent crackdown on migrant labor, with raids on factories leading to the arrest and deportation of hundreds of workers.

The Thai government says the raids are part of its new policy of ensuring all migrants are registered and working legally. The government says, by doing so, it can better protect the rights of the two million migrants in the country.

Under the new policy, by last February migrants were to obtain proof of identity documents - such as passports - from their countries and then apply for new work permits. But tens of thousands who applied on time still have not gotten their paperwork completed. The government says as long as migrants can prove they have applied, they have until February 2012 to complete the process.

Migrants fear raids on workplaces even if their documents are fine, according to Myint Wai, a director with Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma.

“Even the legal worker fear because some are not finished work permit, not finished passport process. Many employers (are) afraid because some are using the illegal people in some factory. So there can be many things of the human rights violations. I have told already to the students you must have your work permit, original paper. If you have no paper or your document (is) a problem, don’t come,” Myint said.

But Thai officials are defending their actions. Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said putiing in place a long-term migrant work policy is necessary.

“What we are trying to do of course is to make sure that we begin a systematic regulation of migrant workers in Thailand …. There is a well laid-out plan and there are structures that will be imposed to regulate that, ” the spokesman said. “We do not want to leave the situation out of control like in the past.”

Thailand has long been a magnet for migrant workers especially from its impoverished neighbors Burma, Cambodia and Laos. In addition, conflict in Burma has driven tens of thousands across the border.

Many are employed in agriculture, construction and manufacturing. Others are in service industries and work as household help. Rights groups have accused employers of exploiting many of them.

While Cambodia and Laos worked with Thai officials to issue passports in Thailand, Burma required its nationals to travel over the border. That meant Burmese migrants faced not only hundreds of dollars in extra expenses, but also physical risk at the hands of Burmese officials and criminals along the border.

The Karen Human Rights Group reports that many Burmese faced special taxes, forced labor, beatings, rape and murder when they crossed the border to get their paperwork.

More than 1 million migrant workers either failed to renew work permits or have not started the process at all, according to the migrant rights group, Human Rights Development Foundation. They are the target of the government’s crackdown, along with the leaders of trafficking gangs who bring workers into Thailand.

The foundation reports as many as 3,000 migrants and six employers have been arrested. The opposition National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma estimates that up to 10,000 migrants have been deported.

Human Rights Development Foundation spokesman Andy Hall said while a labor policy is necessary, the present strategy is failing.

“The need for labor is there; it’s there and the workers need to be in the country. But the system for managing that is a real failure at the moment. It’s not been well thought out,” said Hall. “And when you have system failures, you don’t have good planning, you don’t have sustainable management of migration, then you’re going to see human rights abuses like we’re seeing at the moment.”

Rights groups say workers face police harassment if they are caught without all their documents. But employers often hold workers’ passports and work permits. So workers are arrested for not having documents, and either pay a bribe, or are deported, only to be smuggled back into Thailand.

Jackie Pollock, from Migrant Assistant Project, said the new policy does little to improve conditions for migrants.

“This whole process is not providing any further protection or rights than the old system. So they are spending a lot of money and a lot of time trying to follow the system … but it’s not providing any benefit to them,” said Polock.

Thai officials rebuff the criticism and say the policy upholds both Thai law and human rights standards.

But Thailand faces great struggles to formalize its labor migrant policy. Among them: porous borders, poverty and political uncertainties in surrounding countries.

Ron Corben | Bangkok

A new crackdown on immigrant workers is raising concerns among human rights agencies at home and abroad

On May 23, eclipsed by the news of the red shirt crackdown, 13 Chin migrants - three of them children under the age of five - were killed en route to Malaysia when the truck transporting them crashed in a police chase in Cha-am.

The truck they were travelling in.

The truck, carrying 29 Chin and driven by a paid Thai agent, plunged off the road after police shot out the vehicle’s tyres.

Two survivors remain in hospital; the rest were deported after a period of detention in the Immigration Detention Bureau in Bangkok. The dead, who were buried at the hospital in Phetchaburi province, raised the tally of migrants in Thailand who have lost their lives to acts of suppression this year to 27.

Even so, on June 2, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva approved Order No125/2553, which provided for the “Special Centre for the Suppression, Prosecution and Arrest of Migrants Working Underground”.

The centre, which is chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Sanan Kachornprasart, integrates the efforts of law enforcement, immigration and labour agencies at regional and sub-regional levels.

The centre’s objectives are to suppress the 510,000 migrant workers from Burma, Cambodia and Laos who, this year, failed to apply for work permits, or to extend those they already had, according to the Department of Employment, which hosts the secretariat of the multi-agency centre.

While not explicitly mentioned in the order, the unknown number of migrant workers - estimated to top one million - that have never registered with the government, let alone applied for a work permit, are also likely targets of the order.

Supat Gukun, deputy director-general of the Employment Department and secretary to the centre’s administrative working group, says the suppression is an effort to drive out migrant workers who are here illegally, so that they can return to work in Thailand through legal channels, presumably the Memorandum of Understanding systems that exist between Thailand and neighbouring countries. The MoU with Burma, that will send in “fresh workers”, is in its pilot stage.

Suppression under the order seems to have begun in earnest on June 16 with the arrest of several hundred workers in Samut Sakhon and the start of a spree of mass arrests. According to the centre, 1,587 illegal migrant workers were arrested and 96 employers prosecuted in June.

But the Human Rights Development Foundation (HRDF), which has been monitoring the crackdown through local media reports, has compiled reports that at least 2,971 migrant workers and six employers have been arrested since. The HRDF estimates the figure is actually higher due to recent, less-publicised arrests and the lack of reporting from the Northern, Southern and Eastern regions. Thet Khaing, an official with the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), which has been doing its own monitoring of field reports, puts the number of deported migrants at about 10,000.

The order, and the ensuing migrant crackdown, has been met with concern and criticism from migrant rights groups and international observers, who worry that heavy-handed tactics will threaten the safety and rights of workers.

The Mekong Migration Network (MMN), noting the number of deaths of migrant workers resulting from acts of suppression reported this year, said it was “greatly disturbed by this use of lethal force by the various Thai authorities against undocumented migrants. We fear that these deaths and injuries will multiply if the policy to suppress and arrest migrants is enforced”.

Apart from the cases of the Chin workers, nine Karen workers were shot dead in January, allegedly for being unable to pay a bribe to local police, three children were shot dead by soldiers who fired on the car transporting them, and two young sisters drowned while trying to escape a police raid on their camp.

The HRDF shared similar concerns, and questioned the effectiveness of the suppression strategy at a time when many industries were facing labour shortages.

“Experience shows migrant crackdowns lead to an increase in the arrest, detention and extortion of migrants by corrupt government officials, as well as violence and even death in the ensuing chaos. This particular crackdown policy is premature, makes no sense economically and is unlikely to strengthen Thailand’s national security.”

Cynical observers note that the most obvious benefit of the policy will come in the form of payments to the private brokers who will bring workers in through the new “legal channel”. A demand of 30,000 workers has been set for the new Thai-Burma MoU system, according to Mr Supat.

Others have questioned the motives of the migrant crackdown, in light of recent political rumours about the role of migrants in the red shirt movement and the disproportionate number of arrests of Cambodian migrants this month. While 80% of migrant workers in Thailand are Burmese, according to the HRDF’s statistics, almost half of those arrested in the June crackdown were Cambodian.

In some media interviews with law enforcement officers, the crackdown has also been explained as a response to a dramatic rise in crimes by foreigners, a police assessment that followed the 12 million baht bank robbery by Colombians.

More criticism has swirled around the centre’s seeming singular focus on migrant workers, as opposed to traffickers, smugglers and the employers who hire and recruit illegal workers.

Last week Surapong Kongchantuk. a human rights lawyer, questioned whether Deputy Prime Minister Sanan understood the root causes of the issues, and called on the government to address human trafficking rather than only arresting and deporting illegal immigrants and migrant workers.

Still others worry that under the order, arrested migrants will not be screened for being victims of trafficking or individuals in need of other protections - ie, refugees - particularly given the volume of arrests.

“There are just not enough immigration officers, and they don’t have enough time to properly screen. They just interview for a profile of the migrant worker and then send them back quickly,” said a spokesperson for the MMN.

Perhaps most troubling are allegations, published by Human Rights Watch in its April report on abuses of migrants in Thailand, From the Tiger to the Crocodile, and in recent articles in the Irrawaddy, that Thai officials, brokers and soldiers with the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army are colluding to extort and ransom Burmese migrants who have been sent for deportation at a checkpoint near the Myawaddy friendship bridge on the Thai-Burma border.

Accordingly, the order has also come to the attention of Dr Jorge Bustamante, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, who told Spectrum he was “very concerned about the execution of the new order”, and particularly the fate of workers who are sent back to Burma where militias are extracting bribes and committing abuses of them. He has other concerns about the process of arrests in Thailand, and says his office has received reports of “gross violations of human rights” towards migrants.

Echoing comments he expressed to the Thai government in a report earlier this year regarding the nationality verification process, Dr Bustamante suggests the “urgent suspension of this order in such a way that nationality verification could be re-opened” to continue regularisation of the more than one million migrant workers who remain unregistered in Thailand.

“We are talking about a supply to the labour force that is needed,” he said, noting that the migrant workforce creates about 7% of Thailand’s GDP. “It is on this premise that we recommend the Thai government pursue regularisation and renewal of the NV process for those that remain in need of it.”

He says regularisation has been a humane and successful model in a number of countries.

Many migrant rights groups in Thailand, including both the HRDF and MMN, have also advocated the re-opening of the nationality verification process to migrants in the country and for their ongoing registration. Mr Supat says these criticisms are misplaced, and that the centre and its policies uphold both Thai law and human rights.

He says the Ministry of Labour worked hard to make migrant workers aware of the legalisation process - which ended earlier this year - by liasising with governments of neighbouring countries and employers of migrant workers. Those who did not take the opportunity to become “legal” have no right to stay in the country, he says.

While he was unable to explain the circumstances surrounding the arrests of migrants or their deportations, as these aspects of the process were handled by law enforcement agencies, he assured they would be carried out according to the law.

Mr Supat says that workers are interviewed by authorities and specially screened for being trafficking victims or in need of other protections, according to Thai laws, before being deported on the discretion of authorities.

He adds that the centre’s objective is not limited to the suppression of undocumented migrant workers, but covers all criminal aspects involved in their existence, including the traffickers, transporters and employers of illegal workers.

Mr Supat says the crackdown will not exacerbate labour shortages, because the order targets only the 500,000 workers who do not abide by Thai law, many of which he suspects illegally ran their own business and didn’t have a Thai employer (this disregards the estimated one million who have not registered at all).

He says there are more than 920,000 registered migrant workers.

“The system is fair enough. If we all follow the regulations, there will be no problems.”

Noting that workers who are regularised are entitled to passports, medical care, motorbike licenses and a salaries equal to Thai workers, he says: “If they come legally, we welcome them and protect them the same as local people.”

The aim of the centre, he says, is to better co-ordinate the management of migrants in Thailand and ultimately make them safer.

“If we’re talking about migrant workers, that means they are here working through legal channels. If they cross borders and find themselves a job, they’re illegal.”