Activists want migrant workers treated better

General News - Wednesday December 19, 2007

SOCIETY / LABOUR RIGHTS

Activists want migrant workers treated better

ACHARA ASHAYAGACHAT

Thailand needs to improve its treatment of migrant workers who have increasingly contributed to the country's economic growth, labour rights activists have said.

Migrant workers, 75% of whom come from Burma, make up over 5% of Thailand's 36 million-strong workforce and are estimated to contribute as much as 6.2% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), according to a report launched on International Migration Day yesterday by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the International Organisation of Migration (IOM), and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human rights (OHCHR).

Manolo Abella, ILO chief technical adviser for Asian Regional Programme on Governance of Labour Migration, said migrants' contribution to the Thai GDP would continue in the foreseeable future and therefore Thailand should properly address the issue of the integration of migrant workers into society.

''Despite the economic crisis a decade ago, the number of migrant workers has continued to expand while the growth of the Thai population is slowing, with a decreasing young working population (15-24 years) and a growing ageing population,'' he said.

The report recommended migrant workers be given five-year work permits rather than having to re-apply on an annual basis as they do now. It also suggested there be more flexibility in border areas and fisheries work to allow migrants to register at the village level and shift from farm to farm or according to their period on shore.

Better cooperation between governments of sending and receiving countries is also needed to protect migrants and minimise smuggling and trafficking, it added.

Homayoun Alizadeh, regional representative for OHCHR, said Thailand and other countries in the region still had too many constraints in providing basic rights to their migrant worker populations.

Mr Alizadeh suggested governments empower non-governmental organisations and civic groups so that they could look into the rights of migrant workers and prevent adverse and undesirable social and political problems.

''If you do not treat them well, they'll become second-class citizens in society and will jeopardise the socio-economic and political system. See the social unrest that occurred in countries in Europe,'' he said, citing over eight million guest workers from Turkey in Germany and increasingly jobless North African migrants and their descendants in France.

Yesterday over 100 activists rallied in front of Government House and the United Nations building, forwarding petitions to the government and the ILO calling for easier and direct access to welfare and other services such as healthcare for migrant workers.

Bangkok Post