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Thai PM green lights crackdown on illegal migrants
Irrawaddy - June 16, 2010
Saw Yan Naing – Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva signed an order on June 2 calling for the establishment of a "special center to suppress, arrest and prosecute" alien workers who illegally entered Thailand and are working underground.
According to the Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF), a labor rights group, the "Order of the Prime Minister's Office No. 125/2553" will impact up to 1.4 million migrant workers from Burma, Cambodia and Laos who are currently working in Thailand illegally.
Andy Hall, director of the HRDF's Migrant Justice Program, told The Irrawaddy that the order is disappointing. "It is not realistic to deport thousands of migrant workers who work and contribute significantly to the Thai economy. It is not only a human rights issue, but also an economic issue," said Hall.
Hall added that even though the intention of the Thai government is to deport illegal migrant workers and have only legal migrants working in Thailand, the order may give corrupt local authorities the opportunity to arrest and extort the illegal migrants, but not to deport them.
The purpose of the order is to ensure the effectiveness of the Thai Cabinet's January 19 resolution on nationality verification (NV) for alien workers.
According to the resolution, illegal migrant workers were required to enter the Thai government's NV process by March 2.
Migrant workers who entered the NV process by that time are now permitted to remain in Thailand provided they complete their nationality verification by February 28, 2012.
Those illegal migrants who refused or were unable to enter the NV process by March 2 may now be "suppressed, arrested and prosecuted" under the Prime Minister's order.
According to the HRDF, there are between 300,000 and 400,000 migrant workers from Burma, Cambodia and Laos who were eligible for but failed to enter the NV process by March 2.
In addition, there are an estimated 1 million unregistered migrant workers currently working in Thailand who were not eligible for NV due to their unregistered status, and thus are also targets of the order.
Hall said that the Thai government should provide these illegal workers with another opportunity to register because many have already been working for years in Thailand.
The "special center to suppress, arrest and prosecute alien workers who are working underground" has a central management committee chaired by the deputy prime minister. Its director is the deputy director general of the Employment Department.
According to a Thai government press release issued last week, the goal of the central management committee is to allow for the arrest and deportation of all workers refusing to enter into or ineligible for the NV process so as to allow the government to reach its goal of regularizing migrant labor in Thailand by allowing only two categories of migrants to continue working in Thailand in the near future: (1) Migrant workers who illegally entered Thailand but have or will soon complete the NV process to become legal; and (2) Fresh migrant workers who will soon be brought in from Thailand's neighboring countries legally.
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