Ten young Burmese women, six of them underage, have been arrested in raids on a floating sex farm and a land-based brothel north of Phuket, Phuketwan has learned.
Foreign workers suspected of torching factory
Forensic police are pouring over the remains of a Saha Farms chicken processing plant in Lop Buri that was destroyed by a suspicious blaze that broke out late Saturday night.
"The inspection results would be known in a few days," Pol Lt Charnwut Ruengjab, who was working on the case, said yesterday.
While local police and provincial authorities have refused to comment on possible causes, migrant workers have been frustrated by the non-payment of their daily wages for two months.
Thai demand for Burmese migrant workers is on the rise and the Federation of Overseas Employment Agencies has received requests to send 5,000 migrant workers per month to Thailand, up from 3,000 workers in previous months, Eleven Media reports. Workers sent through a Burmese labor agency are supposed to earn a daily wage of US $10, but often they are paid less, as Thai employers try to recoup transport, visa and other costs of bringing in a worker. The federation’s chairman Ming Hlaing said workers “have to repay 1,000 baht [$30] per month from their salaries for 10 months. But the employers take more than the amount which is agreed upon in the contract.”Eleven Media reports:
The number of Myanmar migrant workers going to Thailand has significantly increased during these months despite unfair payment there, according to sources from overseas employment agencies. The Federation of Overseas Employment Agencies said employers from Thailand has also increased asking for more workers from Myanmar, requesting over 5000 workers a month now. They previously had asked for 3,000 workers a month.
Japan is gearing up to make Burma the new sweatshop of Asia, said a report by The Economist citing the case of Famoso Clothing, which is closing its factories in China and moving operations to Rangoon.
Authorities in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, have been rounding up more than 200 Burmese migrant workers on allegations that they are involved in crimes or lack legal permits to stay in the country.
Migrant rights groups complain however, that Thai authorities have started a major crackdown on registered or unregistered Burmese migrants.
In Burma, it is not at all unusual for a child to serve you tea at a café. Child labour remains a major problem in the country, even as it opens up to the rest of the world.