MAP Marks International Migrant’s Day

By LAWI WENG

About 50 Shan migrants and NGO workers gathered at the International Center in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand on Thursday to mark International Migrant’s Day and to speak out about the injustices and lack of rights afforded to Burmese migrants in Thailand.

“We want to give Burmese migrants voices and let them tell an audience what they feel,” said one of the event’s organizers, Jackie Pollock, a founding member of the Migrant Assistance Programme (MAP) Foundation in Thailand. “We also want to let them have a day off.”

As part of the International Migrant’s Day event, the organizers released an animated documentary on DVD which illustrated the dangers and discriminatory practices that Burmese workers frequently face working abroad.

The cartoon depicted various scenarios, such as in factories, at construction sites or in agricultural jobs, where migrant workers often find themselves without protective clothes or working in unsafe or unhealthy environments.

Sai Mon, a migrant construction worker from Shan State, addressed the audience prior to the screening of the animation to confirm that such incidents frequently occurred. “I witnessed my Burmese co-worker get killed when a falling brick hit him on the head. We were never given hard hats or safety equipment,” he said.

Nang Than Swe, a 26-year-old Shan woman said that she had been working in Thailand as a maid since she was nine. “I don’t even have my own room to sleep in,” she said. “I have to sleep in the dining room. I don’t feel that I have any security.”

Nang Than Swe said she earns 3,500 baht (US $100) a month and, after 15 years in Thailand, has almost forgotten how to speak Burmese.

“Working as a maid is so hard,” she said. “You have to keep working until the house owner goes to bed. Sometimes he doesn’t come home til after midnight and I have to cook until 2 am.”

Another Shan woman, Nang Su Line, who works as a maid in Chiang Mai, said she has never had a day off in one year.

“Even just to come to this event today I had to get up very early to do all my work,” she said. “And when I go home after this, I will have to keep working.”

There are estimated to be somewhere in the region of 1—1.5 million Burmese migrants working in Thailand, mainly as maids, construction workers, agricultural laborers or fishermen. Most work for lower wages than locals and receive no benefits.

According to the Thai Ministry of Labor, some 2 million foreign laborers work in Thailand.

Although the majority are Burmese, many migrants from Cambodia and Laos are also smuggled into the country to feed local industries with cheap labor.