Millions Of Burmese Migrants Could Fall Victim To Deportation And Exploitation If Thai Migration Deadline Is Not Extended

[churchill]

Millions of migrants are threatened by the Royal Thai Government (RTG) with deportation after 28th February 2010 if they fail to enter a nationality verification process (NV). Senior officials stress this deadline is non-negotiable and mass deportations will occur if migrants or employers do not comply.

Over 80% of registered migrants in Thailand (or 1.1 million persons) are from Burma and face ethnic and political conflict as well as continuing economic deterioration in their homeland, which is controlled by a military government. Migrants from Burma left their country illegally but are being pressured by the RTG to submit their biographical information to Burma’s military government. If accepted as “Burmese” these migrants must return to Burma to complete NV and return to work “legally” in Thailand with temporary Burmese passports. Hundreds of thousands of unregistered Burmese migrants are excluded from NV and have no option but deportation after 28th February 2010.

Somchai Homlaor, Secretary General of the Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF) today said: “The RTG must immediately extend the 28th February deadline and cease threats of mass deportation. Mass deportations will serve only to harm both Thailand’s economy which remains heavily reliant on migrant labour as well as Thailand’s international reputation. But more importantly, sticking to this rigid deadline means after 28th February migrants will fall victim to gross exploitation as they are forced underground at a politically sensitive time for Thailand. Systematic corruption will then prosper.”

• Only around 25, 000 migrants from Burma have so far completed NV

• Only around 200, 000 migrants from Burma have so far entered NV

• Most migrants in Thailand do not yet understand NV

• Genuine humanitarian concerns remain for migrants forced to go through NV in Burma

• Unregulated NV brokers are exploiting migrants with exorbitant fees

• Many migrants from Burma cannot and will not enter NV but no strategy to support them yet exists

Somchai adds: “Thailand’s migration policies must be carefully planned to ensure protection of migrants’ human rights. The NV process has not been well thought out and remains a serious threat to the human security of over 2 million workers that contribute greatly to our economy and society.”

On 16th February 2010 at the UN’s offices in Bangkok, complaint letters were submitted to Special Rapporteurs on the Human Rights of Migrants and on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar as well as the Director General of the International Labour Organisation. Over 200 migrants, unionists and rights defenders then marched to Government House to submit an open letter of concern to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, signed by over 60 domestic, regional and international rights groups and trade unions. The open letter demanded amongst other things an end to threats of mass deportation for migrants, NV for Burmese migrants in Thailand and not Burma and strict regulation of NV brokers.

http://www.shanland.org/index.php?option=c...&Itemid=279

[Travel2003]

Read about it in the Post some time back.

I have a feeling this is a "catch 22" made on purpose.

Just disguised as something else.

[whichschool]

Itd be good for poor Thai people if there werent cheap foreign labour lowering their wages.

[churchill]

Feb 23, 2010

Deadline for migrants slammed

A HUMAN rights group on Tuesday denounced a deadline it said could result in Thailand's mass deportation of migrant workers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos and charged they continue to suffer abuses at the hands of Thai authorities.

The Thai government recently ordered the migrants - numbering between 2 million and 3 million - to report to authorities to verify their nationality by Feb 28 as part of a process to weed out illegal foreign workers. About 90 per cent of the migrants are from Myanmar.

A large number of the migrants entered the country illegally and the Thai government earlier attempted with limited success to have all of them registered.

Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said the verification is one step in trying to legalize the status of the migrants, most of whom are employed in construction, fishing and menial labor. 'The government doesn't intend to launch a crackdown on any migrant groups in particular. We simply have to enforce the law,' he said.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said the verification process is expensive, complicated and poorly regulated, keeping many migrants from reporting themselves and thus making them vulnerable to abuse. A report by the group, based on interviews with 82 people, said abuses faced by the migrants include killings, torture in detention, extortion, sexual abuse and forced labor. It said some were perpetrated by corrupt civil servants, police, unscrupulous employers and thugs who knew that the migrants weren't protected by law.

Kapach Nimmanheminda, spokesman for the Labor and Social Welfare Ministry, said there have been reports of extortion and harassment of illegal immigrants, but the ministry expected the situation to improve once the workers are legally registered. 'The backbone of economic growth in Thailand depends on the availability of migrant workers who need to be valued, who need to be protected,' Human Rights Watch researcher Sunai Phasuk told reporters.

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/S...ory_493952.html