Cambodians ‘Trapped’ in Thai ‘Kitchen of the World’

[geovalin]

Khmer Times/Jonathan Cox and Chea Vannak

Another investigation into how migrant workers, including Cambodians, are treated in Thailand has produced a detailed report compiling a litany of abuses – this time in that country’s poultry processing plants – confirming again that migrant workers in Thailand “suffer some of the worst abuse in the world.”

The report “Trapped in the Kitchen of the World” documents a long and familiar list of abuses migrant workers face in Thailand, though the location – poultry-processing plants – is new. The abuses include being swindled by brokers, confiscation of passports and work permits, being duped out of payment and fired without cause, paying for healthcare services that are not received, forced overtime and managers who are racist and violent.

Workers also have their one toilet break a day monitored and timed, the report says. “Trapped in the Kitchen of the World” follows a global scandal over reports of migrant workers being enslaved in the Thai fishing industry. The report takes its name from a Thai government policy to promote the country as the “Kitchen of the World,” and examines the implications this move to undercut other food-producing nations has had on migrant workers.

read more: http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/18119//

The full Swedish document in English is here: http://www.swedwatch.org/sites/default/files/tmp/76_thaikyckling_151123_ab.pdf

[soalbundy]

first fish and now poultry ooops

[John Kane]

This sounds exactly like the Mexican workers in poultry plants in the American midwest - exactly like there.

I wonder if America will pitch in with new demands for Thailand and other countries to solve this labor trafficking issue just like America HASN"T.

[BuaBS]

I care much more about the abuse of the chickens .

[howbri]

This sounds exactly like the Mexican workers in poultry plants in the American midwest - exactly like there.

I wonder if America will pitch in with new demands for Thailand and other countries to solve this labor trafficking issue just like America HASN"T.

Mexicans are free to go home anytime in America. In fact we would prefer they did!

[SOTIRIOS]

...speaking with some Thais recently....it is a know fact that illegal workers are here...in just about every facet of the economy...

...they said it....not me....

[Happy Grumpy]

Farangs complain about unfair treatment from the racist Thais.

Try wearing the 20b flipflops of a Khmer migrant in Thailand for a day.....

How Thais treat voiceless, helpless migrants is utterly

Rohingya, Burmese, Khmer..... at the mercy of Thais.... God/Buddha help them.

[Happy Grumpy]

What happened to the Thai couple that fled to Cambodia after the 12 old Burmese 'maid' they bought escaped with 90% burns from when they used to burn her?

They fled from Central Thailand to Cambodia, but nothing since then?

[GOLDBUGGY]

When you leave your country and enter another and work in the "Black Way" you open yourself to abuse. That is a Given!

Consider you are some Migrant Worker who pays some Ring Leader a fee to sneak you across the Border in the dead of night then hold you in some Jungle Camp until he can sell you to some Thai Sponsor. After a week or so living in inhumane living conditions you find yourself on a Fishing Boat, or some Slaughter House.

Can you now expect from your new Thai Employer, who hired you illegally, to treat you fairly? To provide you with a decent wage, a 5 day work week, medical benefits, food, and suitable accommodations? Not likely!

But this is how many Migrant Workers end up here and once they are here they have no visible way back. Many times there passport is confiscated but even if it isn't who can they turn to? They can't got to the police as they are here illegally and would be locked up for months before being deported. If they can't work because they become too ill, then it is just easier to get rid of them then to try and send them back, which in many cases happen.

But this is what happens with Humane Trafficking and why many countries want this stopped. Where people are bought and sold into some industry or brothel and treated like slaves. This happens all over the world and in some places you least expect. Although not all enter Thailand Illegally, I find it difficult to believe that an unskilled laborer from Cambodia, can get a work permit here anymore than he can in your country. .

[tuanku]

When you leave your country and enter another and work in the "Black Way" you open yourself to abuse. That is a Given!

Consider you are some Migrant Worker who pays some Ring Leader a fee to sneak you across the Border in the dead of night then hold you in some Jungle Camp until he can sell you to some Thai Sponsor. After a week or so living in inhumane living conditions you find yourself on a Fishing Boat, or some Slaughter House.

Can you now expect from your new Thai Employer, who hired you illegally, to treat you fairly? To provide you with a decent wage, a 5 day work week, medical benefits, food, and suitable accommodations? Not likely!

But this is how many Migrant Workers end up here and once they are here they have no visible way back. Many times there passport is confiscated but even if it isn't who can they turn to? They can't got to the police as they are here illegally and would be locked up for months before being deported. If they can't work because they become too ill, then it is just easier to get rid of them then to try and send them back, which in many cases happen.

But this is what happens with Humane Trafficking and why many countries want this stopped. Where people are bought and sold into some industry or brothel and treated like slaves. This happens all over the world and in some places you least expect. Although not all enter Thailand Illegally, I find it difficult to believe that an unskilled laborer from Cambodia, can get a work permit here anymore than he can in your country. .

Perfectly acceptable for responsible employers to legally employ Cambodians and other SE Asians in Thailand. there is a proper system where the workers are registered and their rights are protected. Problem is partly that many employers want to undercut wages guaranteed by that system so the illegal entries continue.

[GOLDBUGGY]

When you leave your country and enter another and work in the "Black Way" you open yourself to abuse. That is a Given!

Consider you are some Migrant Worker who pays some Ring Leader a fee to sneak you across the Border in the dead of night then hold you in some Jungle Camp until he can sell you to some Thai Sponsor. After a week or so living in inhumane living conditions you find yourself on a Fishing Boat, or some Slaughter House.

Can you now expect from your new Thai Employer, who hired you illegally, to treat you fairly? To provide you with a decent wage, a 5 day work week, medical benefits, food, and suitable accommodations? Not likely!

But this is how many Migrant Workers end up here and once they are here they have no visible way back. Many times there passport is confiscated but even if it isn't who can they turn to? They can't got to the police as they are here illegally and would be locked up for months before being deported. If they can't work because they become too ill, then it is just easier to get rid of them then to try and send them back, which in many cases happen.

But this is what happens with Humane Trafficking and why many countries want this stopped. Where people are bought and sold into some industry or brothel and treated like slaves. This happens all over the world and in some places you least expect. Although not all enter Thailand Illegally, I find it difficult to believe that an unskilled laborer from Cambodia, can get a work permit here anymore than he can in your country. .

Perfectly acceptable for responsible employers to legally employ Cambodians and other SE Asians in Thailand. there is a proper system where the workers are registered and their rights are protected. Problem is partly that many employers want to undercut wages guaranteed by that system so the illegal entries continue.

No! It is perfectly acceptable for responsible employers to legally employ Thais in Thailand, and not Cambodians. There are many laws in place in Thailand, like in the issuing of Work Permits, which protects this law.

If you are Cambodian and can legally work here, then you don't have an issue as you are protect somewhat with this law. It is the illegal ones who are more apt to be taken advantage of.

[tuanku]

When you leave your country and enter another and work in the "Black Way" you open yourself to abuse. That is a Given!

Consider you are some Migrant Worker who pays some Ring Leader a fee to sneak you across the Border in the dead of night then hold you in some Jungle Camp until he can sell you to some Thai Sponsor. After a week or so living in inhumane living conditions you find yourself on a Fishing Boat, or some Slaughter House.

Can you now expect from your new Thai Employer, who hired you illegally, to treat you fairly? To provide you with a decent wage, a 5 day work week, medical benefits, food, and suitable accommodations? Not likely!

But this is how many Migrant Workers end up here and once they are here they have no visible way back. Many times there passport is confiscated but even if it isn't who can they turn to? They can't got to the police as they are here illegally and would be locked up for months before being deported. If they can't work because they become too ill, then it is just easier to get rid of them then to try and send them back, which in many cases happen.

But this is what happens with Humane Trafficking and why many countries want this stopped. Where people are bought and sold into some industry or brothel and treated like slaves. This happens all over the world and in some places you least expect. Although not all enter Thailand Illegally, I find it difficult to believe that an unskilled laborer from Cambodia, can get a work permit here anymore than he can in your country. .

Perfectly acceptable for responsible employers to legally employ Cambodians and other SE Asians in Thailand. there is a proper system where the workers are registered and their rights are protected. Problem is partly that many employers want to undercut wages guaranteed by that system so the illegal entries continue.

No! It is perfectly acceptable for responsible employers to legally employ Thais in Thailand, and not Cambodians. There are many laws in place in Thailand, like in the issuing of Work Permits, which protects this law.

If you are Cambodian and can legally work here, then you don't have an issue as you are protect somewhat with this law. It is the illegal ones who are more apt to be taken advantage of.

The Ministry of Labour has affirmed that all laborers are entitled to equal protection under the National labor laws including the Labour Relations Act of 1975 (LRA) and the Labour Protection Act of 1998 (LPA). By 2003, Thailand had signed bi-lateral MOUs with the countries of Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar on the “Cooperation in the Employment of Workers” as a plan to regularize cross-border migrant workers in Thailand. Terms of the MOU reaffirm that the rights of migrant workers who have entered the country under the MOU are to be protected equally to Thai nationals. There are also measures to control undocumented migration.1 Thailand has also issued the Child Protection Act of 2003 and the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act in 2008.

QED