Focus on Burmese Migrant Workers

by Junya Yimprasert and Sam Hummel
Thai Labour Campaign
April 21st, 2001

On April 20, 2001, Thai officials rounded up 500 illegal Burmese workers during raids on Mae Sot factories. As a border town, Mae Sot has become one of the most popular entry points for Burmese people crossing into Thailand as they seek to escape military oppression or find work.

Many factories, especially makers of garment and leather products, operate in Mae Sot specifically to take advantage of this flow of illegal workers. As the workers live in constant fear of deportation, factory operators can pay them about 60-80 Baht a day (50% of the minimum wage) for work completed in often inhumane and abusive working conditions without worrying about being reported to Thai authorities. In fact, it would do the workers little good were they to do so given that Thai law offers illegal workers no protection and such complaints have historically ended with the workers being deported back to Burma.

Many Thai people feel resentment toward Burmese refugees and migrant workers, blaming them for taking jobs away from Thais. However, the situation of Burmese illegal immigrants deserves special consideration. Their situation is not the same as migrant workers from most other countries, including Thai migrant workers, who migrate only because of economic pressure or in search of better income.

The ruling military dictatorship in Burma mercilessly subjects its citizens to serious human rights violations on a regular basis. Isolated from outside observers, those living in rural areas in Burma, like that which borders Mae Sot, often suffer the greatest brutalities. So it should be understood that many Burmese migrants come to Thailand in order to escape forced labour, trafficking, rape, murder and torture as much as to seek job opportunities.

In order to improve the situation of Burmese labour in Thailand, the government should extend greater protections to both illegal and migrant labourers while holding employers more accountable. The reality is that employers recruit migrant labourers (who do not have or know their rights under Thai law) instead of making the improvements in pay and working conditions that would be necessary to attract local Thai workers. Therefore it is in the best interest of the Thai people to provide more support to both legal and illegal migrant workers by extending the Labour Protection Act to include them. Employers should be required to register all of their employees or else face stiff penalties. Currently, less than 10%* of the estimated number of migrant workers in Thailand are registered. Once registered, the workers will come under the protection of Thai law.

Due to the current lack of protection under Thai law, Burmese migrant workers face two unenviable options: return to Burma to meet further oppression and possibly death or remain in Thailand where they will be exploited or trafficked as long as they can evade the authorities, and imprisoned or deported for illegal employment if they cannot.

* Department of Popular Registration, Ministry of Interior, 1999