Mekong Migration Network

Border sources say the ongoing halt of trade across the Thai-Burmese border for more than one month is causing increasing unemployment and economic hardship, and no knows when the border will reopen again.

The impact of the closure is particularly strong at the main overland border crossing point between Myawaddy in Karen State in Burma and Mae Sot in Tak Province of northern Thailand.

Nai Tain, a truck driver who lives in Myawaddy Township said many people who have come to work at Myawaddy are no longer able to pay monthly rents of around 30,000 kyat [US $300] for apartments and increasingly are having to share.

A Burmese money changer in Myawaddy said that after the border closed, many Burmese workers in Thailand no longer use the Myawaddy crossing to return to their homes.

“I used to earn 3,000 kyat [$100] a day. But, no one is coming to exchange money now so I have no income, but who can I complain to?” he said, adding that people are wondering how long they will be able to go on if the border remains closed and there is no work.

People who have lost jobs are having to go out into the country to dig for bamboo shoots to sell in town, earning two dollars a day for hard work that many do not want to do, local sources said.

The closure is affecting almost everyone, whether truck drivers, taxi drivers, market stall-holders, restaurant owners or traders.

One guesthouse owner in Myawaddy said few people stay now the border is closed.

Mahn Bala Sein, a Karen businessman, who own a restaurant in Mae Sot, said he earns around 1,500 baht a day [$48], half of what his restaurant brought in when the border was open.

“Many of them [border traders] have disappeared since the border closed,” he said.

The Burmese regime closed the border, stopping all trade, on July 8, ostensibly in protest at Thai government construction to prevent erosion of the river bank on the Thai side of the River Moei that separates the two countries.

The closure is costing Thailand an estimated 88 million baht a day [$2.8 million] and Thai authorities say the closure is causing large problems.

The Thai border authorities have held talks with the Burmese Deputy Foreign Minister, Maung Myint, several times in Myawaddy but have failed to persuade the Burmese to reopen the border and restore trade to normal.

The Burmese authorities have closed more than 20 illegal crossing routes along the Moei River and they continue to block the majority of goods including food, clothing, cars, furniture, bicycles, automobile parts, consumer electronics and vegetable oil.

Burmese exports to Mae Sot such as teak, furniture, jade, rice, sea food, potatoes and other goods have also halted.

The Burmese authorities are not allowing people to cross the border and people in Myawaddy said they have to pay about 400 baht [$13] to cross the river clandestinely on a return trip to Mae Sot.

After the border closed, many traders have stopped doing business. Only some of the bigger traders have been able to continue by paying double the fees to the authorities, or by crossing over at night at Gate 6, which is under the control of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA).

No one understands what is causing the Burmese authorities to enforce such a prolongued closure.

Local sources suggest it might be to put pressure on the armed ethnic groups along the border, in particular the DKBA, to force compliance with the border guard force plan by disrupting cash flow from border trade.

Another theory is that the Burmese authorities want to increase security along the border and prevent any threats to the smooth running of the Nov. 7 election.

The closure has lead to increased commodity prices across Burma, and sources report that prices on electronic items in Rangoon have doubled.

By LAWI WENG
Wednesday, August 18, 2010

People in Myawaddy Township are facing increased unemployment in the fourth week of the border closure by Burmese authorities, say border sources.

The ranks of the unemployed are filled with car and trucks drivers, conductors, border workers, traders and taxi drivers.

An estimated 130 vehicles carried goods into Myawaddy and other parts of Burma each day before the border was closed. The Burmese regime closed the main border crossing in Myawaddy on July 8, in protest against a river construction project on the Thai side of the Moei River embankment.

Because of the closure between Myawaddy, Burma, and Mae Sot, Thailand, Thailand has lost about 88 million baht (US $2.7 million) a day, Thai Commerce Minister Porntiva Nakasai told Bangkok Biz News on Monday. She would discuss the matter with her Burma counterpart during the 42nd Economic Ministers Meeting this month in Vietnam, in a bid to restore normal trade.

Thai and Burmese border authorities have meet several times recently in Myawaddy Township, and Thai authorities are now working meet Burmese concerns about the flow of the river.

Burmese authorities continue to block the majority of goods including food, clothing, cars, furniture, bicycles, automobile parts, consumer electronics and vegetable oil. Burmese exports to Mae Sot such teak, furniture, jade, rice, sea food, potatoes and other goods are also blocked.

“More than three hundred people who are drivers and conductors have no jobs now because there is no trade,” said Nai Mang, a trader in Myawaddy Township. Some traders and workers in Myawaddy are thinking of returning home until the border opens again.”

Many people have no money to buy food, said observers. Kyaw Hein, a well-known trader in Myawaddy Township, donated food to the poor last week.

“He cooked 30 bags of rice (50 kg bag) a day and hundreds of people came to enjoy the free food,” said Nai Mang.

Nai Tain, a driver on the Myawaddy to Moulmein route, said he used to earn 20,000 kyat ($20) on each roundtrip, but now he has no work.

A trishaw driver in Myawaddy Township said that there are fewer people in town now. He earned 400 kyat ($0.40) on Thursday, but he said he must pay the trishaw owner 300 kyat daily to rent the trishaw.

He said he used to work at the Rangoon Bus Express in Myawaddy and could sometimes earn 20,000 kyat ($20) on a round-trip from Myawaddy to Rangoon.

“I could save some money when I worked at Rangoon Bus Express,” he said. “But, because the bus has stopped, I have to drive the trishaw.”

Win Naing, who transports Thai products from Mae Sot to Myawaddy, said that he used to earn 500 baht ($15) a day from his work. But now, he only carries Burmese kindergarten students around Mae Sot.

Nai Mang said, “I have been here more than 20 days with no work and no income. I just eat and sleep and wait the border to open again.”

Many small border traders have stopped doing business. Some bigger traders continue to work by paying double prices to authorities, or cross over at night at gate 6, which is under the control of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.

More than 20 illegal crossing routes along the Moei River are used regularly. However, following the closure of Friendship Bridge, the main crossing gate, Burmese officials have tried to shut down all known trade routes.

Because of the closure, commodity prices have moved higher at the border and across Burma. Some prices on electronic items have doubled in Rangoon, sources say

By LAWI WENG
Wednesday, August 11, 2010

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Burmese authorities have been instructed by the government to block marriage ceremonies between Burmese women and foreign men, according to legal sources.

“That law is now being suspended on the instructions of the government,” legal adviser Aung Thein told The Irrawaddy.

Aung Thein suggested the suspension of the law could be aimed at preventing human trafficking, but he described it as unfair. “It will prohibit the rights of couples if they truly love each other and want to get formally married,” he said.

The Rangoon journal Flower News journal reported this month that local brokers were involved with foreigners in trafficking Burmese women.

Lawyer Kyaw Hoe, said the suspension of the marriage law dates back to an incident five years ago when a young woman committed suicide after being forced by her parents to marry a foreigner.

“Since then all legal practitioners, including notaries, have not been allowed to officiate marriages between foreigners and Burmese women,” Kyaw Hoe said.

A well known Mandalay woman writer on social issues said Burmese should be free to marry whomever they wished. “I don’t have any objection as long as it is not human trafficking,” she told The Irrawaddy, anonymously.

A representative of a Rangoon-based Myanmar Women Entrepreneurs’ Association pointed out that Burmese women abroad had the right to marry whomever they liked.

A Burmese woman who married a foreigner 11 years ago and now lives in Thailand said: “What is most important is understanding and loyalty to each other. Race or religion don’t matter.”

By THAE THAE Tuesday, May 25, 2010

In the latest escalation of labor tensions in Burma, around 4,000 factory workers at an industrial estate on the outskirts of Rangoon staged a sit-in on Saturday to demand better pay, according to sources in the area.

Workers at two garment factories in South Dagon Township’s No. 2 Industrial Zone began their strike at around 8 am, the sources said.
Workers in Rangoon’s Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone stage a sit-in in
February. (Source: www.niknayman-niknayman.co.cc)

“When the workers got out of the company bus this morning, they refused to enter the factory compound,” said an eyewitness, adding that riot police arrived at the scene soon after the strike began.

The factories are owned by a company called SGI.

“The factory owner said he would comply with the workers’ demands, but he forced them to go home,” said another person who witnessed this latest mass action by Burmese workers.

In recent months, workers employed by factories in Burma’s commercial capital have shown growing dissatisfaction with stagnant wages, as inflation continues to erode the value of their earnings, most of which are spent on the purchase of basic commodities.

Meanwhile, there were also reports that several thousand factory workers in Shwepyithar Township, on the western outskirts of Rangoon, also staged a sit-in on Friday to demand higher wages and better working conditions.

Labor Ministry representatives were involved in negotiations between the workers and the factory management, the reports said.

According to a senior official from the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI), the unrest is related to recent pay hikes for government employees. Public servants’ monthly salaries were raised by a flat rate of 20,000 kyat ($20) in January.

The UMFCCI senior official said that the wages of garment factory workers are significantly lower than that of workers in Cambodia and Vietnam.

“The basic monthly salary of workers here is US $30-50, while workers in Cambodia and Vietnam are earning at least $120 a month,” he said.

By BA KAUNG Saturday, March 6, 2010

Workers in a clothing factory near Rangoon went on strike on Wednesday to support demands for more pay.

The 20 workers are employed by the “Super” factory in Shwe Pyi Thar Industrial Zone, north of Rangoon.

One source told The Irrawaddy the workers were demanding an increase in their salaries, which currently average 30,000 kyat ((US $30.30) per month. Some were on a daily rate of 1,050 kyat ($1.1) for a shift that ended at 8 p.m., the source said.

Security around the factory was increased while workers and management negotiated, one resident said.

Thousands of workers in another Rangoon area, the Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone, and at the “Sky” clothing factory in the western part of Rangoon’s Insein Township, went on strike last month in support of their demands for better pay and working conditions.

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By KO HTWE
Wednesday, March 3, 2010