Trafficking and abuse of workers be must stopped
BANGKOK: -- The issue of Burmese migrant workers is back on the table once again following Aung San Suu Kyi's recent visit to Bangkok. In a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung, she asked him to help Burmese workers. Chalerm promised to extend the Bt300 minimum daily wage to the Burmese workers also.
There are more than two million migrant workers from Myanmar in Thailand. It's true that many Thai employers treat them like slaves or even animals, either as seafood factory workers or housemaids, and they get away with the abuse. The problem is no more obvious than in the fishery and seafood processing industries where many of the Burmese are toiling away. Mahachai district in Samut Sakhon, which the Myanmar opposition leader recently visited to offer hope and encouragement to Burmese workers, hosts one of the largest concentrations of these people. The industries generate much of Mahachai's wealth and prosperity. But the workers share too little of that money for doing menial jobs disdained by Thais.
The point is issues faced by these migrants and others are part of a bigger problem: human trafficking. Since 2008, the Thai government has designated June 5 as the National Anti-Human Trafficking Day to highlight the Social Development Ministry's efforts to battle human trafficking and smuggling rackets and raise public awareness. The official designation of the day is aimed at encouraging all sectors of society to show a commitment to eradicate human trafficking, practically and sustainably.
Human trafficking appears in several disguises - prostitution, begging, cross-border smuggling of migrants and forced labour. The victims are not just workers from Myanmar. There are Cambodian and Lao women and children smuggled into the country to work in factories as cheap labour. Others are lured into prostitution or forced labour. Many Cambodian beggars are more visible in Bangkok these days.
Migrants from Myanmar are at particular at risk of human trafficking because there are so many in Thailand now. Common human rights violations they endure include labour rights abuse such as uncompensated overtime, low salaries, no life insurance or compensation, sexual harassment and torture.
Many migrants do not want to register with the Thai government due to the high cost and fear of reprisals if they give their address in Myanmar. Some Thai employers also don't want to allow their Burmese workers to register to avoid having to pay tax and to prevent any recourse for abuses their workers suffer.
Those who are smuggled by traffickers have to pay huge sums to agents before their journey to Thailand. They often find themselves without a proper work permit and are thus deemed "illegals". Illegal workers are vulnerable to abuse from corrupt Thai officials and unscrupulous and exploitative employers. Some are forced to work for as little as Bt100 a day, or less, if they don't have a work permit.
Migrants complained to Suu Kyi during her visit to Mahachai that they had to pay a few thousand baht to have their work permits renewed. A renewal normally costs a few hundred baht.
Registered Burmese migrants can find themselves coerced into forced and bonded labour, despite being legally entitled to work in our country, due to confusion over their status and lack of access to information.
Female workers are especially prone to crimes. Many cases of Burmese women raped, abused, or exploited by Thais, or fellow workers, go unrecorded. Migrants stuck on Thai fishing boats on the high seas often suffer an even more horrific fate. Yet the government has done to little to try to rein the owners of such vessels - or the brokers who supply them with workers - into line.
On top of that, there is a regular stream of migrant tragedies. In 2008, a truckload of migrants suffocated and died in the sweltering confines of a container lorry after the air-conditioning failed during their journey to the resort town of Phuket. There has also been a series of nasty road accidents in which smuggled migrants have been killed on the way to factories, sometimes caused by drivers attempting to flee from police or checkpoints. Tens of thousands were also left stranded by last year's flood crisis, which caused a mass exodus via Mae Sot, as many saw no other option but to return home.
The problem is their grievances fell on deaf ears for many years. It was only recently that officials from the Burmese government started to take a serious interest in their plight. But given the call from the democracy champion, we can't pretend to take the migrant issue seriously only to ignore it later. Human trafficking is an endemic problem in Thailand. It is high time that corrupt networks smuggling workers into this country are dismantled, and the disgusting exploitation of our poor neighbours is contained, once and for all.
The Nation 2012-06-04
Search Option
Recent Posts
Todays Birthdays
