I don't know if that has been discussed anywhere but it has always been my curiosity to know that is the immigration status of the many Myanmar immigrants in Thailand. Possibly even Laotian, I mean all humble people that work hard for a meager pay.

Sure I understand many are illegal and surely even more exploited because of that, but not all are, how the others do, what kind of visa do they have? And what prevents a Western from getting the same (in theory at least).

If know for sure that they are treated differently than we are, even if they don't speak Thai,for example I've seen cases in which they had some matter with the police, still they were walking free after few hours. And I'm talking about people with extremely limited money if any at all.

Has anyone some good story to share?

They fall under different rules, which are more relaxed.

Myanmar immigrants in Thailand with no identification do not require a visa they just require a business or private individual to sponsor them. The labour department then issues (after a medical check) an ID type card that allows them to work for the sponsor but not change jobs. They are also (legally) not allowed to leave the area in which the card was issued. Legally the employer is bound by Thai labour laws and SHOULD pay the same salary as Thai's.

A good story? About 10/12 years ago i employed a person from Myanmar who didn't have any documentation. I paid the same salary as a Thai worker and the Thai's got rebellious (lol) and reported it to the local police. They did a raid and arrested the person whilst threatening me (we never went to a police station). After knocking their demand down from 50,000 to 30,000 the "officer" in charge asked me to help and employ his mia noi in exchange for making the person legal. i agreed and only later found out that the law had been changed to issue permission to work for Myanmar people and was to take place at the end of that month. Give the police credit through, rotten to the core and rotten to the end!

P.S. I sacked the Mai Noi

Edited February 3, 201313 yr by BrianCR

Only three nationalities, Lao, Cambodian and Burmese enjoy any preferential rights under the 'migrant labour scheme' which is designed for hiring predominantly low wage menial level workers.