Brokers' role in exploitation of migrant workers highlighted

Even after legal verification of their nationality and migration status, lowearning labourers must pay large sums of money as “coordination costs” to brokers appointed by authorities in their countries, said Adisorn Kerdmongkhol, an official with the Migrant Working Group (MWG).
The difficult and complicated verification process makes these unnecessarily high, he said, citing examples on the Thai side such as a large number of Myanmar workers based in the South being forced to undergo the process in Bangkok, and recruitment agencies based in Myanmar demanding up to Bt7,000 from lowearning labourers in what are referred to as “coordination costs” but which are actually commissions.
Adisorn said he believed the unnecessary delays caused by the complicated process would make the latest verification deadline of June 14 impossible to meet. It is the most recent of many deadlines imposed by Thai authorities, but postponed repeatedly, for registration of migrant workers.
Labour migration and civil rights of foreign workers are a topic in the interest of both countries because of Myanmar’s current political reforms and the anticipated closer bilateral ties in various fields. The current visit to Thailand of prodemocracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has highlighted the agenda even further.
Of more than 1.3 million migrant workers registered with Thai authorities, according to the Thailand Information Centre for Civil Rights and Investigative Journalism (TCIJ), 82.1 per cent are Myanmar nationals, 9.5 per cent Cambodians and 8.4 per cent are Laotians.
Giving advice on the registration process, Adisorn said Myanmar workers should be allowed to do it at local offices, and that many more offices should be built. Authorities of both countries should join hands to sort out problems regarding documents and authentication in cases where certain documents go missing or expire. “The deadline should also be extended for another three or four months,” he added.
The Labour Ministry said there are around two million Myanmar workers staying in Thailand, both illegally and legally. Permanent secretary Somkiat Chayasriwong yesterday welcomed Suu Kyi’s speech promising to bring home all Myanmar nationals when the country had developed politically and economically.
He said the ministry and the Myanmar Embassy would work together more closely in providing details about registration, workers’ rights and other assistance.
Somkiat called on Thai employers to develop workers’ skills while increasing the quality of their products with the help of technology, as relying on human labour alone would make expansion and capacity increases difficult after the launch of the Asean Economic Community in 2015.
He movement of workers from Myanmar and other countries back to their countries could begin in the next three to five years, and Thai employers needed to ready themselves now to cope with the change.