Many migrant workers paying for bogus visa extensions
Thai agents are tricking Myanmar migrant workers into paying money for bogus visa extensions, according to a border-based human rights group.
Thailand-based Migrant Worker Rights Network (MWRN) has reported that agents on the border are deceiving Myanmar migrant workers by saying they can pay money to extend their visas after the four-year permit has expired. “According to the [agreement] signed between Thailand and Myanmar in 2003, any Myanmar migrant worker who has held a visa for four years in Thailand, has to return home for at least three years,” said Ko Tun from the Thailand-based Migrant Worker Rights Network (MWRN).
“However, about 1000 workers have been deceived into believing that their four-year old visa can be extended by paying fees to the agents,” he said.
Many Myanmar migrant workers who went to Thailand in 2009 have visas that are due to expire this year. There are also about 70,000 Myanmar workers whose Thai visas are going to expire in 2014.
Myanmar and Thailand need to review their policies on the issue as hundreds of thousands of migrant workers will face the same problem, MWRN urged in a press release.
“It’s not clear yet if the migrant workers who are holding the four-year old visas have to return to Myanmar. Due to cheating agents, if a worker overstays [in Thailand], he will become an illegal worker and will again be exposed to exploitation by employers, while losing his or her labour rights,” Ko Tun said.
