Many migrants workers in Thailand abused: panel

[webfact]

Many migrants abused: panel
Visarut Sankham
The Nation

Experts seek ways to improve their lives

BANGKOK: -- MILLIONS of migrant workers in Thailand have contributed to the economy in one way or another, yet many are still subjected to exploitation, abuse and more.

These points were brought up at a discussion on "Migration Crisis to Protection" held yesterday to address these problems in the hope of extending help and a better quality of life to migrants. Held at Xavier Hall in Bangkok, the event also marked International Migration Day.

Human trafficking in the Kingdom reflects the severity of the problems that many migrants have been struggling with, panellists pointed out. The United States downgraded Thailand to Tier 3 in its latest "Trafficking in Persons" report, claiming that the Kingdom failed to comply with the minimum standards to fight human trafficking and had not made any significant moves to rectify the situation.

"The European Union also issued a yellow card to Thailand for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing," said Adisorn Kerdmongkol, a representative of the Migrant Working Group.

He also blamed many of the problems faced by migrant workers on the registration process.

"Some registration procedures are complex and confusing, with some migrants even getting arrested during their trip to have their nationality verified," Adisorn said, adding that many migrants simply give up the hope of getting properly registered.

While up to 1.5 million Cambodian, Myanmar and Laotian workers registered themselves through the One Stop Service (OSS) centres, only some 1.04 million showed up to renew their registration this year, he said.

"In other words, more than 400,000 migrant workers and their dependants are now in Thailand living with the risk of deportation," he said, adding that some migrants also reportedly had to pay bribes to ease the registration process.

Without registration, migrant workers stand to lose legal protection and access to several welfare services, and the grim discovery of several migrants' corpses in a southern border town this year is a grim reminder.

Siwawong Suktawee, who also works with a network protecting the rights of migrants, said: "Even Pol Maj-General Paween Pongsirin, who investigated those allegedly behind the trafficking of Rohingya, has had to seek asylum in Australia."

He said his network had monitored the progress of eight human-trafficking cases, only to discover that just one case had made any progress.

Sathien Tanprom from the Action Network for Migrants lamented that even though 1.8 million migrant workers had paid for healthcare, many still had problems accessing the services they were entitled to.

"This problem is particularly bad in Bangkok, Samut Prakan, Samut Sakhon, Trat, Chiang Mai, Rayong and Chon Buri provinces," he said, adding that the problem was mainly due to language and lack of adequate information for migrants.

Nattarikarn Thongsomboon from Save the Children said some 300,000 stateless children lived in Thailand, but as many as 46 per cent of them did not go to school.

"Some state schools do not accept migrant children, saying they can't provide documents for reimbursement of government subsidy, while some schools refuse these children simply because they are worried their performance will be poor and reflect badly on the school," she said.

Sukarn Sukpaita, a representative from the Human Rights and Development Foundation, said her organisation had learned that many registered migrants did not get proper compensation for work-related injury or illness.

"This is because the Social Security Office requires employers to pay and in most cases, employers negotiate with workers," she said.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Many-migrants-abused-panel-30275177.html


-- The Nation 2015-12-18

[Srikcir]

"Even Pol Maj-General Paween Pongsirin, who investigated those allegedly behind the trafficking of Rohingya, has had to seek asylum in Australia."

Sounds like another success story for the NCPO.