Thread: Thailand arrests over 155,000 Myanmar workers in crackdown on illegal labour

YANGON: The Ministry of Labour and Thai authorities have been conducting nationwide arrests in Thailand under a crackdown on illegal workers, resulting in the apprehension of 155,669 Myanmar workers between June 5 and Aug 22.


Over 78 days, from June 5 to Aug 22, a total of 208,035 illegal migrant workers have been arrested.



Among those arrested, 155,669 were Myanmar workers, 32,810 were Cambodian workers, 12,920 were Lao workers, 141 were Vietnamese workers, and 6,495 were workers from other nationalities.


Out of the arrested workers, legal actions have already been taken against 914 Myanmar workers, 188 Lao workers, 208 Cambodian workers, 26 Vietnamese workers, and 102 workers of other nationalities, totalling 1,438 workers.



Foreign workers who are found to be undocumented, without a work permit, or working in unauthorised jobs will be fined between 5,000 and 50,000 baht and will be deported, with a two-year ban on re-entering the country for work.


Employers who are found hiring unauthorised workers will be fined between 10,000 and 100,000 baht per worker.


Repeat offences can lead to a maximum one-year prison sentence, fines ranging from 50,000 to 200,000 baht, and a three-year suspension of their migrant worker employment permit, according to a statement from the Ministry of Labour. This information comes from Thai reports.

Thailand arrests over 155,000 Myanmar workers in crackdown on illegal labour | The Star

Thailand arrests, deports 144,000 Myanmar workers for illegal entry

Thailand has detained and deported over 144,000 Myanmar citizens over the past three months, its labor ministry said, in a crackdown aimed at weeding out “job seekers” who use the turmoil in their country as an excuse to seek opportunities across the border, a Thai police chief said.


Myanmar nationals were the largest group detained in the campaign to round up illegal workers launched in June that involved inspections of nearly 15,000 businesses, economic zones and areas where job-seekers congregate, the Ministry of Labor said.


Workers from Myanmar play a vital role in the Thai economy with about 2 million of them legally employed in areas such as agriculture, fishing and the service sector, but labor activists said many more arrive illegally hoping to find work.


Another factor behind the arrival of many more young Myanmar citizens in Thailand this year is a junta conscription law that came into effect in April, three years after the military seized power in a coup, as it struggles to fend off advances by insurgents battling to end military rule.


Assistant Thai police chief Lt. Gen. Itthipol Achariyapradit told Radio Free Asia, a news service affiliated with BenarNews, that Thailand had to act against people who entered illegally, some of whom, he believed, were “opportunistic job seekers” citing conflict at home as an excuse to come to Thailand.


“For those without passports or crossing illegally, we have no choice but to detain them. We can sort refugees or political migrants out from job seekers,” Ittipol said.


“But if the situation remains unsafe we have to delay the process.”


He did not say if he thought being conscripted into the Myanmar army was an unsafe situation.


Despite Thailand’s need for migrant workers, it has been tightening up procedures for them, closing offices where migrants can get vital paperwork processed and granting the junta, through its embassy, greater authority over the fate of its migrant population in Thailand.


‘More reliable’


People being deported in the crackdown will be banned from re-entering Thailand for two years under the ministry’s rules and they face the risk of being conscripted upon their arrival home, said Moe Gyo, chairman of the Thai social aid organization Joint Action Committee for Burmese Affairs.


“Deported people are being recruited under the military’s conscription law and they’re worried,” he said.


Myanmar military authorities forcibly recruited dozens of people deported after serving time in jail in the southern Thai province of Ranong, relatives told RFA this month.


“We can’t say a similar incident won’t happen again. People returning from abroad were extorted and coerced in the conscription process,” Moe Gyo said.


One Thai employer was dismayed by the crackdown.


“It affects us a lot because if they have to go back and can’t return how can we find replacements,” said a hotel owner in the border province of Kanchanaburi who has hired undocumented people from Myanmar for years.


“We hire them not because they’re cheap labor – we pay them the same as Thais – but because they’re more reliable than Thai workers,” said the hotel owner who asked to remain anonymous over fear of reprisal.


Thailand’s Ministry of Labor did not immediately respond to RFA request for comment.


While Thailand documents more than 2 million Myanmar workers in the kingdom legally, some labor groups estimate as many as 7 million people from Myanmar are in Thailand.


The ministry said that in addition to 144,261 Myanmar nationals detained in the crackdown, there were 29,448 from Cambodia, 12,258 from Laos, 117 from Vietnam and 6,196 from other countries.

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It's a disgrace, Thailand should be ashamed!!
Changing the visa requirements so minted Russians can live there in exile but deporting back poor Myanmar's who can't pay for their exile.
Karma will hit the Thai governors when the Myanmar junta is defeated.

In a normal civilised decent country those Burmese would be termed refugees fleeing a vicious and bloody civil war. Here they’re illegal workers.

Nauseating.

As I say, shitty people, shitty society, shitty country.

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

In a normal civilised decent country those Burmese would be termed refugees fleeing a vicious and bloody civil war. Here they’re illegal workers.

Nauseating.

As I say, shitty people, shitty society, shitty country.

Why do you choose to live in Thailand ?

Altruism.