The Foreign Ministry proposed to the Cabinet yesterday the draft agreement for the Second Joint Cabinet Retreat between Thailand and Laos on Sunday in Chiang Mai.

The signing of the joint statement by the two foreign ministers will be witnessed by the prime minister.

Under the agreement, two temporary border passes will be upgraded to permanent status. The Phu-doo checkpoint between Uttaradit in Thailand and Xaignabouli in Laos will be opened permanently next year, while the Baan Sob-Rouk checkpoint connecting Chiang Rai and Bo Kaew was already opened last July.

To facilitate the movement of goods and people, Thailand will soon adopt the single-stop inspection system at the First Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge between Nong Khai and the Laotian side of the mekong near Vientiane. The system will reduce time for truck transportation.

Thailand and Laos have also agreed to promote the utilisation of Routes 8 and 12. Thailand will encourage more companies to invest along those roads.

The two nations have agreed to promote tourism in the region by adopting the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy’s single visa in the near future.

The two countries will tighten cooperation to survey and post boundary markers and ensure peace along the common frontier. They will also cooperate in preventing trafficking in women and children and protecting them from hazards.

Thailand aims to solve the illegal migrant workers problem by agreeing to extend the opening of the One Stop Service Centre for Laotian workers to prove their nationality by 120 days. The two nations have agreed to work closer together on drug suppression and to exchange information to reduce crime and crack down on drugs.

By Piyanart Srivalo
Published on 15 May 2013

There are, of course, a great many similar migrant workers’ communities scattered around the country that provide a steady source of manpower for certain sectors, the garment and fisheries industries in particular.

Although the government has warned for some time that a crackdown on illegal immigrants was coming, this raid seemed to come from out of the blue and the timing is odd.

An April 13 deadline had been set for the employer-aided registration of undocumented workers. Employment Department statistics indicate that as of early this month a total of 54,702 employers had submitted quotas to hire 414,820 migrant workers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos under the memorandum of understanding Thailand had signed with these countries. But on April 5 the Labour Ministry announced that it would seek cabinet approval to extend the verification period for an estimated 400,000 remaining unregistered alien workers by another 120 days to give the one-stop centres set up to process the applications time to do their work.

It is strange therefore that this raid was carried out when so many unregistered workers are in limbo due to factors out of their control, especially as Employment Department chief Prawit Khiangpol said that during the 120-day extension period unregistered migrant workers applying for the verification process would not be arrested. While it isn’t clear if any workers were formally arrested in Chon Buri, many are almost certainly being detained for an unspecified period, and some of them are probably fully documented workers.

The authorities involved in the raid said they were detaining workers who had failed to present work permits or official employment documents, pending proof from their employers that they were legally employed. This strongly implies that in some cases at least these documents are being kept by their employers and not with the workers or at their place of residence. The workers should be allowed to keep official copies of their own documents to give them some protection during such clandestine raids and in dealing with the authorities in their daily lives.

The raid in Chon Buri starkly demonstrates the powerlessness of most migrant workers live in this country. In many cases they are basically indentured servants, and we have all seen reports from human rights groups describing conditions of actual slavery for some migrant workers, particularly in the fisheries industry. It is common knowledge that some migrant workers are essentially held hostage by the trafficking gangs that bring them here.

When fully online the government’s migrant worker documentation programme should go a long way toward ending such abuses, but the process needs to be streamlined and protective measures need to be implemented.

The fact is that Thailand needs these workers and they should be allowed to stay here with dignity. But looking at the picture at the top of page two of yesterday’s Bangkok Post, it is clear that wasn’t happening on Friday in Chon Buri. The picture shows a group of mostly young, nervous looking workers sitting in front of their primitive housing complex where they sleep on average more than three to a small room, waiting patiently on the whims of the authorities.

Whether Friday’s raid was the first wave of a new get-tough government policy on illegal migrant workers or just an isolated operation, those responsible should be asked what they hoped to accomplish. According to the Employment Department the verification process is swamped and needs several more months to be completed. At the least all such raids should be put off until then.

In the meantime, watchdog government agencies should be set up or strengthened to look after the rights of migrant workers, and the justice system should be geared toward swiftly prosecuting those who take unfair advantage of them.

By Bangkok Post

Published on 28 April 2013

A combined team of officials from the Labour Ministry and the Department of Special Investigation’s eastern branch and local police on Friday raided a Si Racha housing complex in tambon Nong Khamand found almost 2,000 migrant workers from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar staying there.

The raid followed complaints that a large number of migrants working at factories in Chon Buri and neighbouring areas whose legal status was not known gathered in this area.

The complex is made up of a dozen five-storey buildings with more than 700 rooms, said Cherdsak Wisutthikul, head of the ministry’s labour protection section.

After the raid, authorities found many migrant workers failed to present work permits or official employment documents. They were being detained pending proof from their employers that they were legally employed.

By Bangkok Post

Published on 27 April 2013

A total of 54,702 employers earlier submitted their quotas to hire 414,820 migrant workers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos under the memorandum of understanding (MoU) Thailand had signed with these countries.

However, there are 384,534 migrant workers still awaiting the verification process, although the April 14 deadline nears. This is because the one-stop service centres set up in major cities nationwide to verify nationality documents submitted by migrant workers and issue work permits to those who pass the process can process only 500 workers a day.

The centres need another 120 days to finish the work.

During this period, unregistered migrant workers applying for the verification process will not be arrested, a cabinet spokesman said.

By: Bangkok Post
Published on: 9 April 2013

The roughly 500 workers at the factory in Thailand’s easternmost province of Rayong said they were being exploited by dodgy agents who found them jobs in Thailand after they left Burma under a bilateral agreement between the two countries.

“We have to pay 2,000 to 2,500 baht for rent, but we were promised free accommodation. Plus we have to pay for transport to work,” one of the protesting workers told The Irrawaddy in a phone interview on Thursday.

The workers, who are mostly from Pegu, Irrawaddy and Sagaing Divisions, claim since they arrived in Rayong their wages have been cut and passports and work permits confiscated by the agent.

Kyaw Kyaw borrowed money from a loan shark in his village to pay the agent. Now, due to the agent’s behavior, he says he cannot send any money home to his family to pay back the loan.

He came to Thailand last year using the Burmese labor agency Yewunnaka, which finds Burmese migrant workers jobs in Thailand.

“I had to pay 450,000 kyat ($520) in advance for the transportation and services fee before leaving my home.” recalled Kyaw Kyaw, who comes from Yinmarpin Township in Monywa, Sagaing Division.

He says he spent three months waiting in the border town of Myawaddy before the agency found him a job and he crossed into Thailand near Mae Sot, in Tak Province.

“That cost me extra,” he said, adding that the company covered none of his expenses during his trip.

“I have been working here for three months and earn about 300 baht a day, but I didn’t save anything yet,” Soe Min Pai, a worker from Pegu, told The Irrawaddy.

About 60 of the workers had to wait like Kyaw Kyaw in Myawaddy after paying the hefty advance fee.

Upon arrival, the workers say, they had to work without pay for ten days, and that even now they do not receive their full wages.

They have been told by the company they will get their passports and work permits back after two years.

But their protests have won them some small victories.

“As we have protested for a couple of days, the Thai agent-Hta Nah Wat-gave the passports to those workers who made full payments,” Kyaw Kyaw said. In order to get the documents back, the workers must pay 2,000 baht a month for six months to the agent.

But Maung Win, another worker from Monywa, said it took a year for the company to give him back his documents.

The denial of workers’ rights to Burmese migrants is not uncommon in Thailand.

By Nyein Nyein
Published on 28 March 2013

Angsuras Areekul, chairman of the Thai Contractors Association, met with Labour Minister Phadermchai Sasomsub on Thursday to complain about harsh action by Thai police against migrant workers from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia despite a Cabinet resolution that leniency be applied in dealing with them as the workers are required to apply for employment registration within 120 days, or by the April 13 deadline.

He said officers from various police units including tourism, highway, immigration, provincial commands and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration have arrested unregistered migrant workers, worsening the problem of labour shortage in the construction industry.

Some migrant workers have switched from construction to work in factories while contractors, especially those in five southern provinces, are in deep trouble due to an insufficient labour force, he said.

The labour minister promised to ask the national police chief to send out instructions to police nationwide.

The minister will consult with the government on the possibility of setting up a labour police unit in the Labour Ministry to be in charge of cracking down on illegal migrant workers.

Labour police should thoroughly know the labour law and handle labour disputes or offences with better understanding, he said.

By MCOT
Published on 23 March 2013

“There are illegal agencies sending domestic workers to abroad. They not just send domestic workers but also any kinds of workers to abroad. There are a lot of illegal Myanmar domestic workers in various countries,” informed an identified officer from Labor Ministry.

He also added that it is difficult to punish the agencies unless a victim reports the incident.

“It does not matter if they go legally or not, we (the ministry) have to solve any problem they face while abroad. They should know if they are staying legally. We cannot enforce any punishment upon the agencies if there is no report,” he explained.

Even though the number of illegal job agencies has recently dropped, workers are still being sent to foreign countries illegally.

Most of the domestic workers are sent to Singapore and Thailand. The official explained that some of the workers go abroad with visit visa but start working once arrived.

The government confirmed that no domestic workers are legally allowed and it will stay the same in the future.

By Eleven Myanmar
Published on 23 March 2013

“We are beginning to draft a law for foreign labour in order to impose a proper policy on foreign labour. It is difficult to control them since the conditions in their countries and Myanmar are different,” Mao Aung said, explaining that foreigners working in Myanmar are doing so with the permission of the Myanmar Investment Commission.

Officially, their numbers are in the thousands, according to the ministry.

An academic who has studied working conditions at the Shwe Gas Pipeline Project said that although he supported a new law for foreign workers, protection of domestic workers needed to be beefed up.

“The new local labour law has weaknesses that cause problems between employers and employees, which lead to workers’ strikes,” he said.

“Economic zones are required to hire at least 25 percent local workers but the law is not practiced. These stipulations need to be checked thoroughly. Even though Myanmar has an insufficient number of skilled workers, it is not proper that basic tasks, such as driving, are given to Chinese,” he added.

He also said that foreign workers were being employed for jobs that Myanmar workers could do, and that they were receiving better compensation and perks than their local counterparts.

“In the Shwe Gas pipeline project, Chinese workers are given five-star hotel rooms while the local Myanmar workers have to stay in huts without electricity. When asked why this was allowed, a project manager replied ‘Myanmar workers are more adaptable to nature’. What’s more, there is also a huge wage gap between local and foreign workers. The ministry needs to ensure that local workers receive proper rights and opportunities,” he said.

Aung Myat Kyaw, a geotechnical engineer, said that the best way to overcome the skills deficit in Myanmar was job training. “I have often heard criticism that Myanmar workers lack skills. However, if they are given job training, they can manage their work without any difficulties,” he said.

“When I was in Vietnam, I learnt that most of the projects employed more local workers than foreigners. In our country, too, except for project management positions, posts should be available to local workers. Another point is that basic jobs, such as drivers, cooks and the like should be given to local workers. As far as I see now, all of the posts in the projects are taken by foreigners,” he said.

By Eleven Myanmar
Published on 19 March 2013

She said the ministry had drawn up a draft law on Labor Migration policy based on international standards. She said it had already been approved by the President’s office and had been submitted to the Union Government.

Currently, temporary passports have been issued to a total of 1.2 million Myanmar people enabling them to work in neighboring Thailand.

According to Andy Hall, an expert on Myanmar migrant labor, some 6 million Myanmars-perhaps 10 percent of the country’s population-now live abroad.

However, in December, Myanmar’s Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security announced that according to its data some three million Burmese are currently working abroad-the vast majority in neighboring Thailand.

By Khin Myo Thwe
Published on 18 March 2013

“It’s a big issue for Myanmar, 10 percent of the workers are overseas; 10 percent of Myanmar’s population is huge. But the capacity of the government to manage those [migrant flows] is very constrained,” he said.

“I think the government is giving increased effort towards improving the management of migration, but there is still a long way to go,” he added.

Hall was speaking on the sidelines of an EU-funded workshop in Rangoon on Friday, where officials of the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security met with UN agencies, the International Labor Organization, migrant advocates and migrant laborers.

Hall said the two-day event was meant to inform the ministry as it seeks to develop new migrant labor policies and management, and build up the knowledge levels of its staff.

“It’s also very important that the government works with the workers, the workers are key. If they don’t agree then you can’t have a migration policy,” he said.

Deputy Director-General Myo Aung from the ministry’s labor department acknowledged in an interview that the government’s capacity to regulate the massive flows of migrant labor and to advocate for the rights of millions of workers abroad was limited.

“We need more human resources and skills in order to have better policies and laws in our department,” he said, adding that the Thai government should do more to help to protect the Burmese workers there.

Myo Aung said there were “a lot of abuses” of workers in Thailand. “To bring dignity to Burmese people who are in Thailand, I think they should give them one-year work permits,” he added.

There are believed to be between 2 and 3 million Burmese migrants in Thailand and many of them are unregistered workers, making them vulnerable to abuse by unscrupulous Thai employers. A smaller number of Burmese work in countries such as Singapore and Malaysia.

Thailand and Burma have been trying to reach a bilateral agreement over how these millions of migrants can be officially registered and given Burmese identity papers and Thai working permits. Burma has requested more time to issue identity paper to its workers, but Thailand has been reluctant to do so.

The so-called Nationality Verification process has also been plagued by bureaucratic problems and accusations that it requires workers to pay bribes to corrupt officials, pushing them further into debt bondage with their employers.

After decades of economic stagnation under military rule Burma offers limited employment opportunities and many Burmese migrate to Thailand via unofficial channels to perform cheap labor in the Thai fishery, garment and construction industries, or to work as domestic servants.

By Lawi Weng
Published on 15 March 2013