Abuses, Exploitation Of Migrant Workers Exposed

Abuses and exploitation of migrant workers exposed

BANGKOK: -- The human rights organization Amnesty International has highlighted the plight of migrant workers in Thailand, saying they are exposed to routine abuse and exploitation.

In a new report, the London-based organization said migrant workers faced mistreatment, harassment and intimidation by employers, police and local officials. They were exploited by people smugglers, and risked arrest and arbitrary deportation by officials seeking bribes.

The report said workers from neighbouring Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia were now being registered in a month-long process that will allow them to stay in Thailand until June next year.

Although flawed, the human rights body said such registrations were "a good faith attempt to regularize and establish a legal framework addressing the flow of migrants".

Amnesty said it was also an opportunity to provide such workers with strong protection.

"The Royal Thai Government should ensure that the security forces do not arbitrarily arrest migrant workers, particularly in order to extract bribes," said Catherine Baber, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Asia.

"It should ensure that they are not returned to countries where they risk torture and ill-treatment."

Included in the findings of the new Amnesty International report were accounts of interviews with 115 Burmese migrants in seven locations across Thailand.

One Burmese migrant worker was quoted as saying: "Thai people regard us as garbage –- they don’t see the Burmese as helping the economy. We take jobs which they won't do. They see us as trouble-makers, never as friends."

Hundreds of thousands of Burmese are now employed in the various sectors of Thai industry, mostly in the in "dirty, dangerous, and demeaning" end of the job market.

Amnesty International called on the Thai government to ensure that all workers in Thailand enjoy basic labour rights, including adequate wages, reasonable working hours, and safe and healthy working conditions.

For the full text of the report is available at http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGASA39012005

--TNA 2005-06-08