Burmese Migrants in Thailand: An Overview and Analysis
by Jon Fox

27 November 2009

A failing grade

By mid-October Thai Labor Minister Phitoon Kaewthong acknowledged that three months into the National Verification drive, only about 2,000 Burmese migrant workers, out of an estimated three million in Thailand, signed up. Critics blame the high processing fees—reportedly over 7,000 Thai Baht (US $250)—confusing bureaucratic regulations, and intimidation by Burmese authorities for the failure of the program so far. With registration closing in February 2010, many doubt the effectiveness of this program.

According to a joint press release issued by the State Enterprise Workers Relations Confederation, the Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF), and the Thai Labor Solidarity Committee, Thai authorities failed to provide clear information to Burmese migrant workers and NGOs about the   National Verification process. Andy Hall, who directs the Migrant Justice Program at HRDF told reporters that “the Nationality Verification process goes against everything being recommended in the UNDP report.”

While the aims of the National Verification scheme are positive, it does not provided unregistered workers sufficient incentive to participate. If you ask a foreign migrant worker they will repeatedly explain that whether they are legal or not, it really makes no difference to them. Htoo Min, a volunteer at the Arakan Worker’s Union (AWU) in Mae Sot explained that bosses often hold onto the work permits of those that managed to acquire them, in order to make sure workers do not leave them. If the worker is then stopped by police, they have nothing to show and risk arrest and deportation. The effort and cost of getting the documents that they never get to keep simply proves to be a waste. In the end it is the employers flouting Thai labor laws that undermine the government’s efforts to regulate foreign workers, by denying workers incentive to participate.

Another inhibiting factor is the cost and complication involved in establishing legal work status. According a HRDF press release, “Migrants can submit biographical information to brokers to get called to verify their nationality in Burma and obtain a passport within months, or instead submit information formally to employment offices and receive a slower response.” Although the official government costs are low (600 to 2,100 Baht / US $17 to $60), broker fees are unregulated and start at around 7,500 Baht / US $200. While not uncommon, the Thai government’s open recommendation of private brokers creates an opening for unscrupulous middlemen to take advantage of people who only want to follow the rules and provide for their families.

With nearly 70 percent of Burma's population eking out a living as subsistence farmers, many families rely heavily on remittances sent home by relatives working abroad. According to the recent UNDP report, Burmese migrant workers remitted an estimated US $125 million in 2007 alone.

As a major source of income, local authorities in Burma have been quick to move in on the action. Moe Swe, a spokesman of the Mae Sot-based Young Chi Oo Burmese Workers Association, explained that the verification process puts migrant workers and their families at risk in Burma. “The problem is that the migrant workers don’t believe the Burmese government. So, they dare not give their real names, ID details or addresses in Burma.”

Tei, a 26 year old ethnic Mon worker, reported that her mother was told by local junta authorities in Burma's Mon State to pay a monthly fee of 5,000 Kyat for each of her children working in Thailand. “This is one way officials will be extorting money from villagers. If I have to pay both in Thailand and Burma, I plan to go back home and stay with my family,” she said.

When the mother of Lawee Mon Chan from southern Ye Township, also in Mon State, was asked to pay the Ye Immigration Department, Lawee decided not to process his application, even though it meant he could work legally in Thailand. The price of paying-off officials at home and brokers in Thailand was simply too much.

Reports of Burmese junta officials arresting and harassing Burmese migrant workers returning home to complete the National Verification process surfaced among migrant communities all over Thailand. Fear spread and people stayed away, compounding an already complex registration process.

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