Saturday 14 September 2013

Round-up of news on Myanmar migrants in Thailand (August - September 2013)

Round-up of news on Myanmar migrants in Thailand (August - September 2013)

"Clarity urged on Thai-Myanmar migrant policy", The Nation, 22 August 2013 
In a joint statement, the State Enterprise Workers' Relations Confederation of Thailand, the Thai Labour Solidarity Committee, the Migrant Worker Rights Network and the Human Rights and Development Foundation said they were deeply concerned about the lack of clarity. "We therefore would like to urgently ask Thailand and Myanmar governments to clarify policy and practice," they said. A key point concerns the migrant workers who have passed the nationality verification (NV) process and who have entered Thailand under a memorandum of understanding signed by both countries in 2003. To date, Myanmar has issued more than 1.7 million passports to migrants in Thailand. However, Thai statistics show that only about 750,000 Myanmar workers with passports have applied for Thai work permits. Only about 200,000 of them are registered for social security and eligible for health protection. According to the 2003 MoU, after migrants from Myanmar have remained in Thailand for four years, they must return home for three years before becoming eligible to return to Thailand. "This policy has never been realistic [either] for workers, employers, [or the] Thai and Myanmar governments and their respective economies. Workers need to remain in Thailand to support their families in Myanmar," the statement said.

"Myanmar migrant workers cheated of visa extension in Thailand," Eleven Media, 21 August 2013 
Thai agents are cheating Myanmar migrant workers into paying money to extend their visas according to a border-based human rights group. Thailand-based Migrant Worker Rights Network (MWRN) has reported that agents on Thailand’s border are deceiving Myanmar migrant workers into paying money to extend their visa after the four-year permit has expired. "According to the [agreement] signed between Thailand and Myanmar in 2003, any Myanmar migrant worker who has held a visa for 4 years in Thailand, has to return home for at least 3 years," said Ko Tun from the Thailand-based Migrant Worker Rights Network (MWRN). "However, about 1000 workers have been deceived into believing that their four-year old visa can be extended by paying certain fees to the agents," he added. Many visas of Myanmar migrant workers who went to Thailand in 2009 are due to expire this year. There are also about 70,000 Myanmar workers whose Thai visas are going to expire in 2014. Myanmar and Thailand need to review their policies on the issue as hundreds of thousands of migrant workers will face the same problem, MWRN urged in a press release. "It’s not clear yet if the migrant workers who are holding the four-year old visa have to return to Myanmar. Due to the cheating agents, if a worker will overstay there, he will become an illegal worker and will again be exposed to exploitation by the employers and losing labour rights," said Ko Tun.

"Workers in Thailand, Say Labor Groups," Phuket Wan, 22 August 2013
There are an estimated three million foreign migrant workers in Thailand, over 80 percent [i.e. 2.4 million] originating from Burma (Myanmar).
Since the late 1980s, these workers have irregularly crossed borders to work in mostly dirty, dangerous and demanding jobs in Thailand thereby significantly contributing to Thailand's economy and providing billions of dollars in remittances to support relatives in origin countries.
These workers continue to face significant exploitation and confusing piecemeal government migration policies. 
In 2002-3, after decades of neglect on developing a systematic migration policy in the Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos PDR governments all separately signed memorandums of understanding (MoU) with Thailand on regularisation of the status for millions of irregular migrants in Thailand. 
On July 15 2009, migrants from Myanmar began to undergo a nationality verification (NV) process. Following NV, workers from Myanmar are issued: 
(a) a three-year temporary Myanmar passport for use between Thailand and Myanmar, extended to six years' validity in 2011; 
(b) a two-year Thai visa, renewable for two years only; and 
(c) they can then apply for work permits. 
Since 2010, 70,000 workers from Myanmar also have entered into Thailand regularly through the MoU import channels. 
Despite significant and ongoing challenges in NV and MoU processes including exorbitant broker fees and confusing application processes and costs, Myanmar has successfully issued over 1.7 million passports to migrants in Thailand. 
Thai statistics show however only around 750,000 Myanmar workers with passports have applied for Thai work permits. 
More concerning, only around 200,000 Myanmar workers with passports are registered for social security and eligible for health protection. 
According to the 2003 MoU signed between Thailand and Myanmar, after migrants from Myanmar have remained in Thailand for four years they must return home for three years before becoming eligible to return to Thailand. 
This policy has never been realistic both for workers, employers and Thai and Myanmar governments and their respective economies. 
Workers need to remain in Thailand to support their families in Myanmar; employers don't want to lose their trained workers at times of labor shortage; and Myanmar is not ready to receive back migrants to develop its opening economy. 
Recently, reports emerged of migrants being required to return to Myanmar for one day, one month or even one year following completion of four years in Thailand if they were to be able to return to work legally. 
But there has been no policy clarity or official announcement. At this time, hundreds of thousands of Myanmar workers passed the four-year limit to work in Thailand and cannot renew their visas any longer. 
As a result of this policy confusion, migrant workers from Myanmar are now facing significant challenges in Thailand.  
These workers are being tricked, exploited and extorted by Thai and Myanmar brokers, agencies and officials through misinformation about visa extensions or the need to return home and enter Thailand through expensive unregulated systems.  
Significant numbers of migrants have paid up to 15,000 Baht (US$500) for new passports, often with new names, thereby forfeiting previously earned social security and labor protection rights and falling into situations of fresh debt bondage and passport confiscation.  
Other workers and employers are using fake documents, discarding passports altogether and becoming irregular, thereby defeating the success of past regularisation. 
The State Enterprise Workers' Relations Confederation of Thailand (SERC); Thai Labor Solidarity Committees (TLSC) Migrant Worker Rights Network (MWRN); Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF) are deeply concerned about this lack of clarity in migration policy. We therefore would like to urgently ask the Thailand and Myanmar governments to clarify policy and practice on these following requests:
1. The Thai Government should provide opportunities and clarity for migrant workers to access to social security and health protection.
2. The Thai Government should clarify concrete migration policy and practice on migration for those who have passed NV process, migrant workers who have entered into Thailand through MOU and workers who have already passed four years regulation.
3. The Thai and Myanmar Governments should conscientiously enter to punish brokers in order to protect migrant workers from being exploited.
4. The Thai and Myanmar Governments should announce policy clarity on migration to all stakeholders.

"Thailand faces labor shortage as neighboring economies grow", The Asahi Shimbun, 29 August 2013
A looming shortage of workers is threatening Thailand’s development as the economies of Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos are taking off and drawing their own nationals home... When he became a fisher at the age of 12, only Thais were in the trade. But foreign workers began to increase in the 1990s as Thais sought higher educational opportunities... Thailand, whose birthrate is declining, has made up for a labor shortage with workers from neighboring countries... The number of migrant workers from neighboring countries has sharply increased since around 1990... The government has repeatedly extended deadlines for registration procedures in line with requests from businesses... On Aug. 6 [2013], the government once again extended the deadline, which was pushed back in December, for one more year for those who had already applied. Labor Ministry officials had said there would be no further extension and unregistered workers would face deportation, but few took the warning seriously.

"Migrants in limbo as Thai visas expire," Myanmar Times, 25 August 2013
Migrant workers in Thailand, including some who have been working legally in the country for decades, face an uncertain future in the coming weeks as the first visas issued under a 2009 program expire... “The actual policy is about the [Thai] government’s fear of migrants coming and settling for a long time and becoming part of the system. They deliberately keep them for only short periods of time,” said Jackie Pollack, program director of Migrant Action Program, an advocacy group based in Chiang Mai.

"Thailand allows Myanmar migrant workers to extend visa," Eleven Media, 5 September 2013
Myanmar has reached an agreement with the Thai Ministry of Labour to allow Myanmar migrant workers residing in Thailand for four years to re-enter the country after staying one month in Myanmar, according to the Migrant Worker Rights Network.

"No Jobs at Home for Burmese Facing Expulsion From Thailand," The Irrawaddy, 4 September 2013
Despite all the international media talk of Burma becoming Asia’s ‘last economic frontier’ fuelled by an investment and growth boom, job opportunities “are insufficient for the present working-age population, even before contemplating the issue of the returnees,” economist and a co-editor of Burma Economic Watch Sean Turnell told The Irrawaddy.

"Thai gangs extort money from Myanmar migrant workers," Eleven Media, 6 September 2013

"Migrants to be granted access to healthcare in Thailand," Eleven Media, 7 September 2013
Thai government plans to give migrant workers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, as well as their families, access to national health services without having to undergo a nationality identification process.

1 comment:

  1. there have very serious affair about Myanmar migrants in Thailand. and three million foreign migrant workers in Thailand very big below for them. it had internal government policy to solve this matter.

    Migrate to Singapore | Migration specialist Singapore

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