New thinking needed on migrant workers?

BANGKOK - Inside a wooden row house in Bangkok, 10 Vietnamese tailors sweat over piles of T-shirt orders for 18 hours. With more orders coming and the workers’ need for higher incomes, the migrants and their Thai bosses employing them illegally are taking a risk after bribing the police.

Thailand and Vietnam have a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on dealing with migrant workers, but only for those who work in the fishery and construction sectors.

Beginning at 6am until midnight, Vietnamese Toan and his wife sit behind vintage sewing machines, continually pressing swollen feet on the machine while their hands hold the fabric. At seven baht per T-shirt, the couple can earn at least Bt600 per day. The Thai employer also provides these workers with food and a place to stay.

The 27-year-old and his wife mostly stay indoors, seven days a week. They want to save money as they transfer around Bt20,000 to Vietnam every month for their schoolchildren and parents. Still, they worry about being arrested and deported.

“My boss has to bribe at least five groups of officials. Each authority claims Bt500 per head per month, totalling Bt25,000 per month,” he said.

Seven years ago, Toan crossed the border from Vietnam and travelled through Laos to work in Thailand. He carried only a passport but had paid Bt5,000 to an agent to assist in crossing the border.

A Vietnamese can stay in Thailand for 30 days without an entry visa. During his first three years, Toan had to leave the Kingdom every month to renew his visa. He simply crossed the border to Laos or sometimes Cambodia, staying there for a few hours before returning to Thailand.

He stopped the visa runs during his fourth year here, and let his passport expire. He has not returned to his homeland since.

And just three months ago, his wife decided to move to Thailand to help him make money. She has also let her passport expire and has not returned to Vietnam either.

Vietnamese who struck it rich

Thinh’s story is more complicated. He began his struggle 15 years ago as a migrant worker before becoming a successful cloth wholesaler and the father of three Thai-Vietnamese kids.

In 2001, the 36-year-old left his home country to escape poverty and strive for a better life. He was a labourer in Nonthaburi for a year and often arrested and deported back to Vietnam, as his legal status was not verified.

But, a couple of months later, he returned to Thailand and started a new job working in a small clothing factory in Chaiyaphum, owned by the family of his wife-to-be. Two years later he got married and a few months later, the factory had to be closed. Around 30 illegal Vietnamese workers in the factory were detained and sent back to Vietnam following a crackdown on illegal aliens.

The couple later moved to Bangkok and started their own clothing house. They also hired eight Vietnamese workers, who were among the 30 deported. “I felt sympathetic towards them and wanted to help my fellow citizens,” Thinh explained.

He said he had to bribe eight local officials to let his migrant employees carry on working without permission.

But Thinh prospered and became the owner of a fashion shop and a manufacturer. He hired two Vietnamese relatives to oversee the manufacturing and fabric stocks. His factory produces and sells around 1,000 trendy dresses for women every day.

The business he has built from scratch has enabled him to enjoy a much higher financial status. He owns a fine house and European cars. He has joined the ranks of the wealthy, residing in the heart of Bangkok. Every month, he says, he sends tens of thousands of baht to his parents in Vietnam.

He now holds a non-immigrant visa type “O” thanks to his marriage 10 years ago to a Thai. He lives in Thailand legally, and his life of poverty is a memory of the past.

For Thai authorities, these stories are problematic. Arak Prommanee, head of the Labour Ministry’s Employment Department, said the government had tried to curb the number of illegal migrant workers. It has two mechanisms – registration for existing illegal alien workers, and an MoU on Labour Cooperation that Thailand and Vietnam signed on July 23 last year. So far, no Vietnamese workers have come under the MoU, he said.

Stricter measures to stop illegals

Immigration Bureau chief Pol LtGeneral Nattorn Prohsunthorn reiterated that the bureau was using more strict measures to try to prevent illegal workers from coming here.

“For example, if a migrant crosses a border every 30 days for six months in a row, the authorities will stop him and seek a declaration of his purpose to enter Thailand,” he said.

However, the government’s attempt to strictly control immigration does not seem to adequately tackle the ongoing problem, Migrant Working Group coordinator Adisorn Kerdmongkol said.

“The Vietnamese mostly want to find jobs in the service sector and there is high demand for Vietnam workers in this sector as well.” But the government had prohibited foreigners from service jobs such as waiters, hotel service and hairdressers, he said.

If there was both demand and supply, at the end of the day migrant workers – and Thai employers – would seek ways to carry on work illegally, he said.

“It would be better to adjust the regulation to suit the current needs of both migrant workers and employers, so that we can have registered foreign workers. Once we have them registered, it would be easier to manage and oversee them,” he said.