8 February, 2010
In Thailand, a 28 February deadline awaits for some two million migrant workers from Burma, Cambodia, and Laos to either register through a complex “Nationality Verification” process, or leave the country. The Royal Thai Government’s Cabinet of Ministers issued this binding and unjust ultimatum on 19 January.
But a groundswell of momentum, both inside and outside of Thailand, is taking shape to convince the government that this is a bad idea, considering alone that 80% of these workers are Burmese who face persecution and imprisonment on ethnic and political grounds if they return to Burma. For migrant workers who have valid 2009 Thai work permits, they will have to submit biographical information to their home governments by 28 February. For those who do not enter the “Nationality Verification” process, they will be deported.
Since the early 1990s, Thai authorities have conducted a somewhat cumbersome, yearly, 30-day registration period in which illegal migrant workers register for a work permit, receive a one-year amnesty to work in Thailand, and then fill many jobs in a bustling economy that most Thai workers do not want. But now with last month’s change, and in just five weeks time, migrant workers have been thrown into unsecure futures where exploitation and possible malicious job treatment await.
The ICEM has joined Thai affiliated unions and NGOs in seeking to relax this ruling. Other Global Union Federations also are expected to take up the call. The ICEM stands behind the 170,000-member State Enterprise Workers’ Relations Confederation (SERC), the Thai Labour Solidarity Committee, and other unions and NGOs who are working to repeal this rule.
An ICEM letter to the Thai Prime Minister can be found here, and ICEM also has written to ILO Director-General Juan Somavia and to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, under the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, calling the 28 February deadline impractical.
From ICEM’s Thai affiliates, and from the Migrant Justice Programme of the Human Rights and Development Foundation, the ICEM has learned that of tens of thousands of migrant workers in Thailand right now are living in fear, confused by the “Nationality Verification” process and concerned whether or not they will have to live and work underground.
The ICEM is deeply concerned that unregulated labour brokers are already duping migrant workers in charging excessive fees to handle the filing process. Reports indicate that fees in the range of 6,000 to 7,000 Thai baht (€130-150) are being charged, despite the official Thai processing fees for “Nationality Verification” being only a fraction of that.
The ICEM is also disturbed that the Thai government has done little in public awareness to make the directive and the deadline known. This has only propagated the confusion and fear of migrant workers.
And one fact underlines the entire Thai migrant policy resolution of 19 January: the overwhelming numbers of migrant workers employed in Thailand are Burmese and ethnic minorities from inside Burma. In many cases, registry with the military junta there, or expulsion from Thailand for failing to register altogether, is a sure ticket to persecution of Burmese workers if they are returned, or of family members if they are not.