Foreigners Performing Volunteer Charity Work In Thailand

[sylviex]

- If you are not concerned about the small risk of the point above, then go ahead and volunteer!

...

Final rule - This is Thailand and all the above is liable to change if the day of the week has a letter 'D' in it.....

Simon

Excellent summary. Well done.

Indeed, an excellent summary.

Close attention should be paid to the dynamic between the clauses highlighted above.

The example of the tsunami has been used to show how the possible reaction of officialdom if Thailand finds itself on a global media stage.

I need not "think too much" for various possibilities for a sudden explosion of media interest in the volunteer world to occur to me.

Ditto if you cross a Thai, especially an important one, even inadvertantly, in the course of your illegal activities.

Ditto if you are involved in a road accident where a victim is the sister of the policeman who knows the lady who makes the somtam who is married to the brother of the deputy head of the local Labour Office.

I need not think at all to know if Thai authorities would step forward to carry the blame for allowing illegal workers. Not even our own emabassies would, in all probability. If I were caught up in some worrisome scenario, I might need the help of my embassy. Who could blame them if they dropped me like a hot kebab if I had been working illegally ?

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I don't see why I, or any other foreigner, should be expected to take any risk, however small, and not be helped to help Thailand and Thais by simply being given the appropriate legal papers.

[cloud96]

I could use the opinions of some of the folks contributing to this topic:

I came here and began work at an NGO 7 months or so ago last year. I was assured by the organization director that I would not need a work permit since I was a volunteer.

After coming here and talking to people and reading I realized I was actually working illegally. My passport even said working was expressly prohibited.

I realized I had put myself in a very precarious situation, as the above posters have described. However, I didn't really have anywhere to go, no job to go back to, and I needed the work experience, so I stayed.

Later on I realized the organization was very unprofessional and was a real joke. It is not a registered NGO. It's members were illegally crossing the border into Burma to do projects, and ridiculed me when I expressed my concerns. Not to mention, the projects themselves were carried out by untrained folks and frequently the finished job posed significant risk to the users of the systems. There was one incident that a battery installed by the organization blew up in 2 people's face because the battery had vented gas in an enclosed place with no lighting and the person performing maintenance used a lighter to give light to the area, thereby igniting the gas and BAM! The kicker is the person was blamed for not using a flashlight instead of a lighter, and the practice of putting batteries in enclosed places continued. The systems were not well designed and often broke down after less than a year in service. I could go on but you get the idea. I also suspect there were some odd things going on with the finances of the organization as well. It also operates out of a residential area with a lot of loud noise and other disruptions due to the nature of the work.

I tried to improve the safety and reliability of the systems but my ideas were not well received (can anybody say, TiT?)

I recently have left the organization. It's best that I left but I feel this volunteer stint brought significant damage upon my career. Not only was my experience not all that useful, but I now have to explain the circumstances of my departure which will not be easy. Now I'm practically broke, no work, no immediate plans for the future, no ticket home (if I had one), really no place to go, etc etc.

The thing is, this organization goes on bringing volunteers here under false pretenses, hiring them illegally, and doing illegal, unsafe work. The organization is known in the area for treating it's workers and volunteers badly. If someone gets injured on the field, there frequently is no first aid kit. Many times we worked 6 day work weeks and had mandatory off-hours meetings, but requests for time off were often denied with a nasty attitude (and I was a volunteer!). I had many expenses which were never reimbursed. What can I do? Luckily I never had any legal trouble but if I did, I would have been totally powerless. It's only a matter of time before it happens to somebody.

I want this ineffectual and unsafe work put to a stop, but I feel that there is no way to solve this situation. Does anybody have any thoughts or ideas on this?

[Crushdepth]

From my understanding of Thai law, the rules are:

- You need to get a WP for ALL volunteer work

- Some organisations/NGOs are ignorant of Thai labour law, or believe they are above the law and don't need WPs

- Some government departments do not know Thai law, or are lax about enforcing the rules

- In many cases, doing volunteer work without a WP will not lead to any problems

- In some cases, such illegal work could lead to a fine, imprisonment or deportation, (especially if you upset a Thai national)

- If you are not concerned about the small risk of the point above, then go ahead and volunteer!

- If you do want to be 100% legal, get a WP (but in many cases you will be unable to do this because either your organisation or local labour office are ignorant of the law and will not provide supporting documents or will state that you do not need a WP!)

Final rule - This is Thailand and all the above is liable to change if the day of the week has a letter 'D' in it.....

I think this is a good summary. There are definitely cases where the authorities *know* that foreigners working for various NGOs are doing so illegally and deliberately turn a blind eye because they think its a good cause. This was certainly the case for some of the post-tsunami volunteers/NGOs. However, it is equally true that the authorities do so at their discretion, and that such volunteers are putting themselves in quite a vulnerable position. Don't expect any sympathy if someone decides to have you hauled up, because you won't get any.