Monday 16 July 2012

Protection too costly for many Myanmar workers

The Nation reports on the high cost, red tape and corruption hindering migrants acquisition of passports and work permits in Mahachai.
Many Myanmar migrant workers have to live without real legal protection because they cannot afford the inflated fees charged by some agents for nationality verification.  "All the fees related to the process in fact should not exceed Bt2,000 per person, but we have found that most workers pay at least Bt5,500," said Kyaw Zaw Linn, the Samut Sakhon location coordinator of the Migrant Justice Programme. He has also worked for the Human Rights and Development Foundation.  About 700,000-800,000 Myan-mar people have completed the nationality verification process in Thailand and become registered migrant workers, who are entitled to many legal rights and protection, he said.  "But many other migrant workers have no chance to get such protection because they cannot scrape up the fees," he said.

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