LABOUR-THAILAND: Hopeful Sign for Overlooked Migrant Workers

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Jun 10 2004 (IPS) - There seems to be light at the end of the tunnel for migrant workers in Thailand who have lent their sweat to boost the health of the country’s economy, but ironically lead lives in fear of arrest and deportation by the authorities.

This hopeful sign stems from a policy that the Thai government will start enforcing from Jul.1 to regulate the presence of over an estimated one million migrant workers who live within its borders.

The initiative offers both documented and undocumented migrant workers an opportunity to register themselves directly with Thai authorities, rather than doing so through their employers. It also encourages the workers to register family members who have slipped into Thailand with them but are unemployed.

”The basic concept is good, because the migrant workers will be given an identity card once they register that will be theirs and not to be held by the employers,” said Jackie Pollock of the Migrant Action Programme, a non-governmental organisation based in the northern city of Chiang Mai.

”It will give them some protection to avoid being harassed by the police or by their employers,” she told IPS.

Furthermore, the policy that goes into effect by July also places a premium on the rights of migrant workers – something that was completely overlooked previously that resulted in regular violations and human rights abuses.

For one, the migrant workers will be able to enjoy the same protection under labour laws that cover the Thai working force. In addition, the migrant workers will be entitled to receive the same wages and benefits that their Thai counterparts are guaranteed.

The current minimum wage is 135 baht (3.35 U.S. dollars) per day. And the benefits include access to health care and education for the dependants of the migrant workers.

But employers using Burmese migrant workers in their garment factories in towns such as Mae Sot, along the Thai- Burma border, are frequently reported to under pay their labour force.

The migrants, both documented and undocumented, according to reports, are paid between 50 baht to 80 baht ( 1.28 to 2.0 U.S. dollars) per day.

And those who complain run the risk of arrest and deportation or abuse by employers and the police.

Thailand’s attempt to regulate its migrant labour force is part of a global trend, Ricardo Cordero, programme officer at the Bangkok office of the International Organisation for Migration, told IPS.

It has resulted in governments from countries that send workers abroad signing bilateral agreements with countries that receive them, in order to protect this labour force.

The agreements that Thailand has struck with Burma, Laos and Cambodia have provided the structure for the new policy that will be implemented in July, added Cordero.

”We are aware that the challenge before Thailand is big and not all problems of migrant workers can be solved,” said Cordero.

But the agreements, he added, were an important first step.

Thailand has close to an estimated 1.2 million migrant workers, a majority of whom lack proper documents to work in this South-east Asian county.

Close to one million are from Burma, while 110,000 are from Laos and 88,000 from Cambodia, according to figures from labour advocates.

In 2001, Bangkok launched a migrant workers registration programme with the aim of documenting as many members of the foreign labour force, as possible, and regulating them. But only 568,000 registered on that occasion, of which nearly 460,000 came from Burma.

The following year, the number of migrant workers who re- registered dropped to 409,000.

The mainstays of Thailand’s economy namely the agriculture, fisheries and garment manufacturing sectors are entirely dependent on cheap foreign labour from neighbouring countries.

In addition to that, in the construction industry, the bulk of manual work is performed by migrant workers. And in households, the use of foreign domestic maids is on the rise, due to locals demanding higher salaries.

In 2000, for instance the Thai Labour Department estimated that the total economic contribution to the Thai economy from registered migrant workers was 2.3 million U.S. dollars. In 2003, on the other hand, the Federation of the Tak Industrialists Chapter, a body of factory-owners in the north- western province of Tak, where over 80,000 Burmese migrant workers are employed, stated in a report that the region had earned 125 million U.S. dollars over a 12-month period.

The Burmese migrant workers have been trickling into Thailand out of desperation for employment, given the foundering economy and political oppression of the ruling military government back home.

But the registration option, however, may not be easy when Thailand implements its new policy, given the bilateral agreement struck between Bangkok and Rangoon.

Under this agreement, Thai authorities will only grant working papers and new identity cards to Burmese migrants who register after Burmese officials have vetted their names.

”This is causing worry to many migrant workers. They are not sure what the Burmese government will do with the names or even if they will approve the people as being Burmese,” Mo Swe, leader of Yaung Chi Oo Workers Association, said in an interview.

The workers association is a Mae Sot-based group of Burmese migrants.

‘ ‘Many workers here do not have documents to prove they are from Burma, like a passport, and they fear that they may be sent back if they register,” he told IPS.

Such fear is understandable, since under Burmese law citizens who leave the country illegally can face up to three years in prison. And the same prison sentence can be enforced for Burmese citizens returning to the country without the necessary documents.

But Beejoy Sen of the Burma Lawyers’ Council feels that such fear is unfounded, since the Burmese government ”has not conducted mass arrests of migrant workers being deported home daily nor have they gone after these people in a systematic way.”