By LAWI WENG
Many Burmese migrants in Thailand will not visit their family in Burma this year because of the economic impact of the global financial crisis, according to Burmese migrant workers.
There were about 5,000 migrants traveling to Burma this month through the border town of Three Pagodas Pass, according to a source close to the Thai immigration authority.
He said 20,000 people returned home during the same period last year. Burmese migrant workers normally visit home once a year.
“Normally, many people return to Burma every year during this month,” he said. “But this year, only a few Burmese migrant workers returned.”
Ma Ye, a Burmese migrant who works at a southern Thailand rubber plantation, said she had planned to ordain her son as a monk this year. “I postpone it because I can’t make enough money,” she said.
Another worker on the plantation, Nay Myo, said he had a 300,000 kyat (about US $260) debt when he came to Thailand. “I can’t pay it back yet even after almost a year in Thailand because the rubber price dropped,” he said, and his pay was affected.
Meanwhile, Burma’s unemployment rate has plummeted because of the global financial crisis, forcing a growing number of Burmese to flee to neighboring countries in search of work, said a source on the Thailand-Burma border.
A source who is involved in smuggling migrant workers from Burma into Thailand said about 200 illegal Burmese migrants arrive in Three Pagodas Pass daily.
Many Burmese migrants remain in Burma now, he said, waiting for a chance a better time to leave for Thailand, because authorities have tighten border security prior to a visit by one of the King’s daughters to Thong Pha Phum District in Kanchanabur Province.
Unemployment in Burma is at its highest level this year, an economics professor at Rangoon University suggested.
Win Kyaw, a carpenter in Mudon Township, said he usually he has enough work lined up building houses to last a year. “But, I have no regular work now because many migrants in Thailand send home less money. There are not as many people building houses here.”
A Karen businessman in Myawaddy said about 100 people cross the Thailand-Burma border every day. Some work in borrowed paddy land in Mae Sot and also grow vegetables, while others continue on to Chiang Mai or Bangkok. In Mae Sai, it’s estimated about 50 to 60 Burmese migrants cross the border from Tachilek daily.
Estimates say there are about 4 million Burmese migrants living and working in Thailand. About 500,000 are legally registered with the Thai Ministry of Labor.
In April, when 54 Burmese migrants suffocated to death while being transported in a container truck from Ranong near the Burmese border town of Kawthaung, the tragedy prompted Thai officials to step-up efforts to stem the tide of illegal migrants. But
Burmese continue to make the trip in a desperate bid to find jobs to support themselves and their families.
The Thai government last week announced they would not offer new Burmese migrants a chance to register legally this year. Several hundred illegal migrants were arrested in Bangkok in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, the cost of smuggling one migrant from Mae Sot to Bangkok remains at around 17,000 baht (US $550), according to informed sources.
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