Migrant workers risk deportation from Thailand

Police units in Thailand’s border towns and provinces are reportedly gearing up to deport hundreds of thousands of migrant workers. The National Verification Process deadline was up at the end of February, and although some 700,000 migrants were able to obtain the documents that the authorities now require – a so-called proof of origin – 500,000 were not.

However, for many of the migrant workers in Thailand, it is almost impossible to go home, says Sunai Pasuk from Human Rights Watch.

"The Burmese represent the largest percentage of migrant workers in Thailand. It is more difficult for them to go back home to go through the National Verification Process because they fear for their safety at the hands of the military government in Burma. They fear that they will be subjected to extortion at the hands of the Burmese authorities. And they fear that if they go back to Burma their families could be taxed heavily because the Burmese authorities see them as making a sizeable income in Thailand."

Exploited as domestic helps or textile workers

Most of the migrant workers in Thailand work as domestic helps or as textile workers. They are often exploited and rarely receive the minimum wage, says Jackie Pollock, the head of an NGO for migrant workers in Chiang Mai.

"Migrants on a daily basis are exploited in their workplace. The labor laws are really not enforced although the Ministry of Labor says all workers are entitled to minimum wage and protection, which the migrant workers rarely receive.

"They are also liable to extortion by the police if they are undocumented. At any point of the day a policeman can approach them and take money from them – even from migrants who are documented, who have the migrant worker’s card, because usually the employer confiscates it."

Women are at particular risk

Sunai Pasuk from Human Rights Watch says that there is so much abuse against migrant workers because “they exist only as an asset in the investment calculation. There is no protection.

"They can be killed for failing to pay the protection fee to human trafficking networks or to corrupt officials. Female migrant workers if they are arrested can be subjected to rape or sexual abuse in exchange for their release."

Yet, migrant workers from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia form a substantial part of the Thai economy. Many companies fear they will have to close down if workers without papers are deported, especially considering the current economic crisis.

UN call for more rights for migrant workers

Last year, the United Nations called on the international community to fortify the rights of migrant workers. Helen Clark, the new head of the UN development program, presented a report exposing prejudices and myths.

"During the international recession, as unemployment has risen, some countries have unfortunately witnessed a backlash against migrants and in those circumstances the political debate around migration can become rather negative," she explained.

"A very important dimension of this year’s report is that it challenges many of the stereotypes, which bedevil the debate around migration. This report suggests that fears about migrants taking jobs or lowering the wages of local people, placing an unwelcome burden on local services or costing taxpayers’ money are generally exaggerated. The report asserts, rather, that receiving societies as a whole benefit from migrants, from the rising levels of technical innovation they may bring all the way through to the building of increasingly diverse cultures."

Many Thai NGOs have called on the government not to deport illegal migrant workers, saying that they risk falling prey to human rights violations and extreme poverty in their countries of origin.

Author: Bernd Musch-Borowska / act
Editor: Thomas Baerthlein