THAILAND: More than a million illegal migrant workers face deportation after failing to apply for work permits

Record ID: 348368

  • Title: THAILAND: More than a million illegal migrant workers face deportation after failing to apply for work permits
  • Date: 5th April 2010
  • Summary: SOLDIERS HOLDING AFRICAN NATIONS FLAGS MARCHINGMIGRANT WORKERS SITTING (SOUNDBITE) (Burmese) 23-YEAR-OLD TUAY FROM SOUTHERN MYANMAR, SAYING: "I don't have money so I don't have the rights to say anything. If they are going to arrest us, there is nothing I can do." MIGRANT WORKERS WORKING AT SEAFOOD MARKET WORKERS PUSHING CART WORKER CLEANING PLASTIC CONTAINER WORKER
  • Embargoed: 20th April 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Thailand
  • Country: Thailand
  • Topics: International Relations,Employment
  • Reuters ID: LVA1RRJVTAJMCS20YWBR4Q15H4P9
  • Story Text: More than a million illegal migrant workers in Thailand face deportation to their home countries as they failed to register for work permit in the country.
    Over a million of illegal migrant workers in Thailand are facing deportation as they failed to apply for the work permit by the March 2 deadline, said rights activist.
    Thailand has more than two million migrant workers -- from Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar -- and half of them will soon have to leave the country as under new Thai regulations, they need to submit the nationality verification then could they become legal migrants and get work permit or face deportation.
    The Labour Ministry official said the new regulations aimed to improve standard of working environment for migrants to be the same standard as Thai workers including health care scheme.
    Most of migrants work in fishing industries, textile factories or as domestic helpers, who receive lower wages than other Thai workers. But it's considered better than back home, especially for Myanmar migrants.
    Human Rights activist said the government should extend registration process as there are a large number of migrants who did not show up for the process in time.
    "So we see now that according to official statistic 1.3 million migrants can enter to the process and they eligible, and of those around about a million enter to the process according to official statistic, which means that 300,000 who did not enter the process and the government said they will be deported. You know, there is also another million who are unregistered, who are not eligible to new registration process. We have a figure between 1.3 to 1.5 million. The government said they will deport them," said Andy Hall of Human Rights and Development Foundation in Bangkok.
    The nationality verification process is only applicable to regular migrants who submit registration before March 2 but it did not apply to those ethnic minorities from Myanmar who fled their home due to human rights violation, activists said.
    The process was accused of being too complicated and costly as the migrants need to return home to get the national certification proven by their own governments.
    The rights group also said Thai government did little to conduct public relations campaigns with the migrants.
    The migrants have to pay 3,800 baht ($118 U.S. dollars) to apply for work permit but many of them have to pay double to the brokers to get it faster and avoid any complication.
    For those who run out of money, they failed to apply one.
    "I don't have money so I don't have the rights to say anything. If they are going to arrest us, there is nothing I can do," said 23-year-old Tuay from southern Myanmar who earned 6,000 baht ($186 U.S. dollars) a month but he was fired by his employer after his work permit expired.
    Thousands of migrants mainly from Myanmar, crossed the border into Thailand every month or get smuggled in to seek a better life as they earned little money at home.
    To send a million of illegal migrants back home, many said it will affect Thai's economy as the migrants make up about six percent of the workforce.
    Many people agreed with Thailand to formalise migrations but to arrest and deport them back to their home countries without giving them a chance is like causing a "train wreck".
    "So we are against any kind of deportation and what we are fear for all of these, in fact even if the deportation doesn't take place, these migrant workers are now illegal. They are unregistered and we are worried that they gonna become the victims of the systematic exploitation by like the corrupt officials," said Hall.
    The police often spot check places in a fishing port of Mahachai, Mae Sot and Ranong, the main areas where thousands of illegal migrants work under false Thai names and documentation.
    In 2009, police sent back almost 350,000 workers to their countries but many of them returned to Thailand when they get a chance.
    The migrants said they paid up to 4,000 baht ($124 U.S. dollars) bribe to be freed when they were arrested by police.
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