Getting rid of Burmese workers

As PPT has posted previously, the Abhisit Vejjajiva coalition government has developed an odious track record on refugees and other peoples of concern who cross borders seeking sanctuary.

PPT had thought that the millions of workers who do all the hard and dangerous work in Thailand, exploited by often horrendous conditions, poor pay and sometimes slavery-like circumstances, would have been in a different category for the government. After all, Thai employers, happy to exploit these migrants, regularly make calls for more foreign workers and cheap migrant labor keeps Thai and foreign enterprises profitable in industrial sectors that would have died a “natural” death years ago.

Not so it seems. Various reports indicate that the Democrat Party-led government is going to expel more than 1 million migrant workers, most of them to Burma.

The Irrawaddy (18 February 2010) reports that “Thai authorities say that despite protests by human rights groups they are proceeding with plans to deport up to 1.4 million migrants who fail to complete national verification procedures by the end of February.”

It is reported that Deputy Prime Minister Major-General “Sanan Kajornprasart, in his capacity as chairman of the alien workers management committee, had appointed officials to arrest and deport migrant workers who failed to complete national verification formalities by the end of February.” This is a direct outcome of a cabinet resolution that allowed extension of work permits only if migrants “completed the national verification formalities, which involve processing by their home countries.”

As a footnote, it is Sanan who has been heading up the repatriation of hundreds of allegedly Cambodian beggars, many of them severely disabled, back across the border, apparently in breach of Thailand’s own laws.

That’s not as easy as it might initially sound, especially for those from Burma. It is, however, in line with two things. First, the Abhisit alleged attention to “rule of law, and second, the military’s long-held suspicion of migrant workers as a security threat. The government claims it wants workers “above ground.” As PPT has previously said, Abhisit’s rule of law is, in fact, using the law for government and political advantage.

The UN expert on the human rights of migrants, Jorge A Bustamante, said: “This scheme does not offer options for protecting the human rights of migrants who have not availed themselves, or will not avail themselves, of this process.” The UN official “said he was disappointed that the Thai government had not responded to his appeals for ‘restraint’.” He warned that “the threats of mass expulsion will result in unprecedented human suffering and will definitely breach fundamental human rights obligations.”

Andy Hall, the director of the Migrant Justice Program, claimed that deportation was “not realistic … the economy needs the workers.” (He also has an article on this topic in the same issue of The Irrawaddy).

The economy needs them. The problem – if the government ever recognizes it – is that it risks a huge rise in illegal and unregistered underground workers, strengthening the hand of the police, military and traffickers (of course, in Thailand, these are not mutually exclusive categories. The government’s “rule of law” will actually create more crime and less attention to law as corruption increases even further in cross-border smuggling of workers.

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