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.