Migrant Workers Risk Deportation From Thailand

'Police units in Thailand’s border towns and provinces are reportedly gearing up to deport hundreds of thousands of migrant workers. The National Verification Process deadline was up at the end of February, and although some 700,000 migrants were able to obtain the documents that the authorities now require – a so-called proof of origin – 500,000 were not.

However, for many of the migrant workers in Thailand, it is almost impossible to go home, says Sunai Pasuk from Human Rights Watch.

“The Burmese rep'resent the largest percentage of migrant workers in Thailand. It is more difficult for them to go back home to go through the National Verification Process because they fear for their safety at the hands of the military government in Burma. They fear that they will be subjected to extortion at the hands of the Burmese authorities. And they fear that if they go back to Burma their families could be taxed heavily because the Burmese authorities see them as making a sizeable income in Thailand.”

"Women are at particular risk

Sunai Pasuk from Human Rights Watch says that there is so much abuse against migrant workers because “they exist only as an asset in the investment calculation. There is no protection.

“They can be killed for failing to pay the protection fee to human trafficking networks or to corrupt officials. Female migrant workers if they are arrested can be subjected to rape or sexual abuse in exchange for their release.”

Yet, migrant workers from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia form a substantial part of the Thai economy. Many companies fear they will have to close down if workers without papers are deported, especially considering the current economic crisis.

UN call for more rights for migrant workers"

continued http://www.ethiopianreview.com/news/14095