Migrants Fear Worst From New Thailand Government

[Jai Dee]

Migrants fear worst from new Thailand govt

In the heart of Bangkok’s Klong Toey slum, Than Maung, an illegal migrant worker, fingers a grubby wad of notes and debates whether to send his savings home to Myanmar.

With a new elected but unpredictable government about to take over in Thailand, these are nervous times for the estimated 1mn workers from neighbouring Myanmar, where 45 years of military rule have crippled a once-promising economy.

“I have no worker registration card in my present job and have heard the new government will be stricter on us,” said the 32-year-old carpenter, who earns just 2,500baht($75) a month, a third of Bangkok’s legal minimum wage.

“I think I should spend this money trying to get a good job that can guarantee my security,” he said.

With the majority of Myanmar workers unregistered, it is a predicament playing out across the sprawling capital, where people from Thailand’s historical foe are regarded with suspicion and contempt.

Under Thai law, registered migrants have the same rights as Thais, but in practice this is far from the case. Migrants are routinely denied access to such basic rights such as education, medical care and freedom of movement.

Several provinces with high migrant populations, such Phuket and Phang Nga in the south, or Samut Sakhon west of Bangkok, have imposed curfews on alien workers and barred them from owning mobile phones.

“The Thai government should recognise the Burmese migrant workforce. It should no longer ignore their rights,” said Ko Htwe, General Secretary of International Transport Workers Federation (ITWF).

However, the prospects of positive change were slim, with many Thai officials deliberately hampering alien worker registration to keep wages low, he said.

“The worse the situation for the migrants, the cheaper the labour for the Thai businessmen,” Ko Htwe said. “The new government will not change things.”

However, other activists said there was faint cause for optimism, given the influence of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra over the new administration, led by the People Power Party (PPP).

Thai Ministry of Labour figures show an overall increase in the number of registered migrant workers under the Thai Rak Thai party of Thaksin, a telecomsbnaire who came to power in 2001 and was removed in a September 2006 military coup.

“In its time, Thai Rak Thai did pay attention to migrant workers. So, hopefully, the TRT-influenced PPP will take migration issues into account,” said Myint Wai of the Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma.

Source: Reuters - 30 January 2008

[jbowman1993]

As bad as things might be here in Thailand, does anyone believe that they are better off in BURMA?!!?

Absolute absurdity.

[Ned]

These exploitative bastards are going to need all the near-slave foreign workers they can get to keep this shonky ship of a country afloat.

[PeaceBlondie]

As bad as things might be here in Thailand, does anyone believe that they are better off in BURMA?!!?

Absolute absurdity.

Of course not, j. That is their great fear, and much of the reason that keeps them enslaved in Thailand. It is just a shame that Thailand only looks when better compared to Burma.

Shall we ask the Thais how Buddhist it is to oppress their fellow Buddhists? Do the Burmese love their children, too?

[Flatouthruthefog]

These exploitative bastards are going to need all the near-slave foreign workers they can get to keep this shonky ship of a country afloat.

WHOOPS! Here was I, clicking on this thread to see if any 'farang migrants' shared my concerns about OUR future treatment by the new gang.

Sorry, any worries we may have are nought compared to the 'near-slave foreign workers' you rightly describe Ned. Did you read about the young woman shopped to the police as an illegal migrant by her Thai employer, just hours after she told him that he had made her pregnant? And that's only one story that happened to make it into the media!

But as I don't see any way in which we can help that horribly exploitative situation, come on, farangs, let's hear it for us, eh? I don't see any of us packing our bags, but I bet a lot of personal investment from abroad has just come to a screeching halt. As well as big business investment.

Has recruitment to the expats clubs slowed down, do we know?