Myanmar migrants abused, exploited in Thailand: Amnesty

Myanmar migrants abused, exploited in Thailand: Amnesty

Agence France-Presse, Bangkok

Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand face a lack of basic human
rights and are routinely abused, paid below the minimum wage,
arbitrarily arrested and forced to live in unhealthy conditions,
Amnesty International warned on Wednesday.

The London-based human rights watchdog, in a report based on
interviews last year with 115 Myanmar migrants, said the Thai
government has failed to address key problems faced by the
laborers from the neighboring country formerly known as Burma.

"They remain extremely vulnerable to exploitation,
particularly to extortion and physical abuse, at the hands of
smugglers, employers or the local police," Amnesty said in its
report.

Thailand, in a memorandum with Myanmar's military government,
has guaranteed registered migrant workers the same rights as Thai
nationals.

"However... in practice migrant workers are routinely not paid
the legal minimum wage, nor are they permitted to organize or
enter into collective bargaining, both rights which Thai workers
are in principle entitled to," the report noted.

Shakedowns and arbitrary arrests were common, and the deaths
of laborers attempting to flee Thai authorities have been
reported, it said.

Thousands of Myanmar migrants belong to ethnic minority groups
from areas in internal armed conflict, and Thailand should ensure
they are not sent back against their will as they would be "at
risk of serious human rights violations were they to be returned
to Myanmar".

One 23-year-old migrant told Amnesty: "The Thai people regard
us as garbage -- they don't see the Burmese as helping the
economy. We take jobs which they won't do. They see us as
trouble-makers, never as friends."

Thailand established a registration system for migrants in
2001. Last year some 850,000 people from Myanmar registered, but
tens of thousands more are believed to be working in Thailand
without documents.

As Thailand becomes more prosperous, "fewer Thai people are
willing to work in jobs which are commonly known as 'dirty,
dangerous and demeaning', and Burmese nationals have arrived in
Thailand in increasing numbers to fill the labor shortage," the
report said.

A 24-year-old migrant from Yangon described the abusive
conditions at a Thai wool factory where he had earned 3,000 baht
(US$75) per month.

"I worked from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., sometimes until midnight,
with no overtime pay... Thirty of us men lived in a hall, about
30 feet by 10 feet (nine by three meters), sleeping side by
side."

Amnesty also criticized Thailand's poor efforts to assess the
impact of last December's tsunami on Myanmar migrants. Migrant
support groups and the Law Society of Thailand estimate up to
2,500 Myanmar migrants went missing in the waves.

"There appears to have been no concerted effort to track
missing Burmese migrant workers by the Thai authorities," Amnesty
said.