Finland finances empowerment project for migrant workers
Finnwatch and the Migrant Worker Rights Network (MWRN) have commenced a three-year joint collaborative project to empower migrant workers' negotiation power.
The aim of the project is to ensure better working terms and conditions and improve migrant workers quality of life in Thailand, they said in a statement. The collaborative project is funded by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
There are over 2 million migrant workers in Thailand, mostly from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.
"Migrants often lack accessible channels to voice complaints and have limited ability and confidence to negotiate better working terms. MWRN are working to change this in Thailand" says Sein Htay, President of MWRN.
Key project activities include research on migrant work conditions in Thai companies exporting to Europe, training workers on rights awareness, empowering workers to negotiate better working terms and conditions, setting up a legal help desk, strengthening MWRN's organisational capacity, recruiting new fee-paying members to MWRN as well as establishing a new MWRN office in Songkhla province, Southern Thailand in mid 2015.
