I am here to speak on behalf of the “undocumented” Burmese migrant workers in Thailand, with whom I have been working for several years. According to the Royal Thai Government figures, there are more than 1.2 million Burmese working in Thailand. Unlike the usual profile of migrant workers, these Burmese migrants have fled from half a century civil war and on-going gross human rights abuses committed by the Burmese junta.

The military offensives of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) against the ethnic armed groups are still going on. People from the conflict areas are fleeing for safety to Thailand in search of a means to support their families.

The open market and the private sector, which according to the SPDC are the “major”
components of it’s economy, have benefited only those within the SPDC circle, thus causing serious economic instability. The price of consumer goods is skyrocketing every day. Added to these harsh economic conditions, lack of food, lack of job opportunities and loss of hope have resulted in the flight of migrants from both urban and rural areas throughout Burma into Thailand in search of a means to support their families.

In Thailand, Burmese migrant workers are doing jobs nicknamed the 3Ds – Dirty, Difficult and Dangerous – on the lowest level of the Thai labour market, and at well-below minimum wages. Migrant workers from Burma who live in Thailand barely survive. For those who work in factories, their wages are as low as one dollar per day.

Because of their legal status, because they are aliens, because they are poor, undocumented migrant workers face multiple discrimination and open abuse and violence from Thai employers, unscrupulous individuals and certain corrupt officials. When they were in Burma, they faced discrimination because they are women, because they are ethnic and vulnerable to rape and sexual abuse by the government troops. In Thailand, they are discriminated as migrants, as they continue to be vulnerable to similar abuses by Thai employers, individuals and some authorities. For fear of arrest and deportation, few survivors of such abuses are willing to come forward to press charges against the perpetrators. Few survivors who did press charges often face threat from the host community, local authorities and local men. I’d like to give one example of a strong case:

On July 12, 1999 Thai immigration officials sent a group of about 50 illegal migrant workers from Burma, who had been arrested from different areas in Thailand back to the Thai- Burma border. The migrants were put in the care of the Thai Army Rangers at the border camp. There were about 10 soldiers at the camp. The officer in charge separated eleven women from the group and then ordered his man to take the rest of the migrants to the border check point nearby. That night by 11, all the women were forced to strip naked and they were sexually molested in front of their husbands and members of their families.

All of them pleaded with the military men not to harm them. Among them was a 16 year old girl. Her elder brother also pleaded with the officer tot do anything to him but to spare his little sister. He was also stripped, tied to a tree, then kicked, punched and beaten by the officer. Not being able to bear seeing what was happening to her brother, the girl gave in and asked the officer to let the brother go. The officer raped her twice. He also raped two other married women.

Following the incident, three of the women, including one of the rape survivors reported the incident to the local authorities, and asked for charges to be brought against the Thai officer. However, on July 29, when the women were brought to the local police station to identify the offender, the officer’s representative first threatened the women that if they actually took the case to court and lost the case, they would end up in jail themselves.

They were urged to accept some money instead. When the women insisted they wanted to press charges, they were reminded they were illegal and that the case could drag on for 2 – 3 years, during which time they would have to stay in jail because they did not have an ID card. The women had no choice but to drop the charges and make an out of court settlement. Moreover a representative of the abuser had threatened the rape survivor that her life would be in danger if she went ahead and pressed the case or if she would make the case public. The woman representative, who came from a woman’s group closely working with the community and who had accompanied the survivors, also received death threats from the offender.

As you can see, undocumented migrants face many risks of racial discrimination and xenophobia. Their lack of legal status is often used to justify a denial of basic human rights, including access to repress mechanisms and basic social services.

Unless there is a significant change in Burma’s political climate, there will be more and more people fleeing from Burma to the neighbouring countries, working as undocumented migrant workers for their survival and encountering various types of human rights abuses and multiple discrimination.

Considering the vulnerable position of undocumented migrants, I would like to take this opportunity to call on the Royal Thai Government:

• to sensitize all relevant (Thai) authorities and the media so that they will actively prevent any abuse of migrants – especially women – on Thai soil.
  
  
• to convince them to allow these refugees and migrant workers who are working in the badly paid sector of manual and unskilled labour –despised by the Thai – to stay in the country.
  
  
• to encourage media to present migrants and migrant labour in a positive way.
  
  
• to sign the convention of the rights of migrant workers and their families.
  
  

Thank you.

August 31, 2003
Asia Pacific Tent
NGO Forum
World Conference against Racism, Durban South Africa