Thailand toughens migrant measures

phnompenhpost

FRIDAY, 18 JUNE 2010 15:03

BROOKE LEWIS AND CHHAY CHANNYDA

Thai border police stand guard at the Cham Yeam international border crossing between Cambodia’s Koh Kong province and Thailand’s Trat province last year. We allow them to work, but they have to apply for registration first.

THAILAND has announced a series of measures designed to target migrant workers who have failed to comply with a controversial registration process implemented earlier this year – a group that includes about 43,000 Cambodians, according to statistics provided by a Bangkok-based human rights organisation on Thursday.

The measures were outlined in a June 2 order signed by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, and include the establishment of a “special centre to suppress, arrest and prosecute alien workers who are working underground”, according to a translation of the order supplied by the Human Rights and Development Foundation.

In addition to the centre, the government will establish working committees tasked with investigating migrant workers in five different geographic areas covering all of Thailand’s 75 provinces, the order states.

Andy Hall, director of HRDF’s Migrant Justice Programme, said the order marked a more forceful approach to the enforcement of Thailand’s nationality-verification process, wherein migrant workers were to submit documents to their home governments in order to secure new work permits in Thailand.

“We haven’t seen anything quite so organised like this before,” he said Thursday. “This time, there’s no way for migrants to comply – there’s no registration process open, there’s just a threat.”

The deadline for complying with the nationality verification process was March 2.

According to HRDF figures provided later that month, there were 124,902 Cambodian migrant workers eligible to participate. HRDF figures indicate that 81,601 took part, so 43,301 could be subjected to the new enforcement policies.

But because the policies also target workers who lack the documentation necessary for eligibility, it is likely that thousands more Cambodian migrant workers could be targeted.

There were an estimated 1 million undocumented migrant workers from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, according to HRDF, who could not provide country breakdowns for that group.

Hall said that with the new policies in place it is unclear what will happen to migrant workers who are rounded up.

“They say they’re going to ‘suppress, arrest and prosecute’. They usually say they will deport, but this time there is no mention of deportation,” he said.

“We’re quite surprised at the policy. The government’s policy is very strong: It’s threatening and punitive.”

Supat Guukhun, deputy director general of the employment office at the Thai ministry of labour, said Thursday that there was no way for migrant workers who missed the March deadline to register without first returning to their home countries to apply through legal channels.

“We allow them to work, but they have to apply for registration first,” he said.

Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn could not be reached for comment Thursday, nor could spokesmen for the Thai ministry of foreign affairs.

Koy Kuong, a spokesman for the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the two countries have a memorandum of understanding in place that allows for Cambodians working illegally in Thailand to be sent back.

“According to an MoU, Cambodian embassy officials can work with the Thai authorities to send them back to Cambodia,” he said. “We would welcome them back.”

He added that he did not yet know the specifics of the new enforcement policies – the details of which are not spelled out in the June 2 Thai government order – and thus could not say for how long workers could be detained at the “special centre” or in other Thai facilities.
“This is an internal regulation of Thailand,” he said.

In what appears to be one of the first mass arrests carried out under the enforcement policies, a raid on Wednesday in Mahachai, in Thailand’s Samut Sakhon province, netted a total of 145 illegal migrant workers – 30 from Cambodia, 103 from Myanmar and 12 from Laos, according to a translation of a Thai news report provided by the Migrant Justice Programme.

The workers were said to have been detained, and it was unclear how they would be processed, with the report saying only that officials would “proceed with them according to the law”.

Hall said Thursday that he was not aware of any other arrests, but that the MJP would be monitoring the situation closely. He added that comprehensive enforcement of the government’s new policy could well turn out to be unfeasible, as it would result in the loss of a vital part of the Thai workforce.

“The economy is quite dependent on migrant workers from Cambodia, Burma and Laos, so we don’t think it’s realistic,” he said. “There is no system now except for new legal arrivals.”

What Happens to Thailand’s Sex Tourism During the Riots?

The Son Of the Khmer Empire

Thai prostitutes and Thai king

It is interesting to read the article by Jessica Olien on  What Happens to Thailand’s Sex Tourism During the Riots?. The article elaborates how the sex trade pumped millions of dollars into Thai economy affected and how the foreigners felt by the riots when Thailand’s most famous sex districts were banned, barbed with razor-wire and signs designating the area a “live-fire zone, and put under the emergency and curfew regulation like Patphong, Nana Plaza, Go Go Bar, and Pattaya. As one of  old farangs said:

“I’ve been coming here for years. I’m 75. Where else am I going to find a 25-year-old girl who will sleep with me?“

[…]

Where else is there to go? A man with the username UKmatt on the popular expat (and sexpat) forum thaivisa.com suggests the Phillipines as a viable alternative to Thailand. There, he says, there are “beautiful Hispanic-looking women with big boobs,” but goes on to cite a high crime-rate and bad food as reasons for not going. As for other countries: Sex tourism is not permitted in Laos or Malaysia, and neither Cambodia nor Vietnam has, to my knowledge, ever been referred to as the “Land of Smiles,” as the popular Thailand slogan goes. Also, the advanced age of many of the men who come to Thailand for sex also means they need to be close to adequate medical care, which much of the rest of Southeast Asia lacks. Thailand has fantastic hospitals for those who have a heart attack or an erection lasting longer than 48 hours.

This also reminds me of Mr. Tony who recently wrote a very challenging article on The Role of Thai Prostitution and the Thai King in Economic Development, which implies that without prostitution Thailand would never have gain its status as today.

Best Pics of the Military Crackdown

By The Son Of the Khmer Empire

May 20,2010 at 6:51 pm

Please click HERE.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

A Group of Arrogant Siam Places Angkor Wat Pic in front of Toilet

Angkor Wat

By The Son Of the Khmer Empire

May 16,2010 at 7:01 pm

Chourn Rithy, President of Trade Union for Sofitel Royal Angkor, told Dap-News that some Cambodian staff working at the hotel disputed with a group of arrogant Thais who stayed at  the hotel for placing Angkor Wat temple in front of toilet and step on it. Those arrogant Thais said they placed it in order to welcome guests, but not to insult on Cambodian heritage. The dispute happened on 16 May 2010 at 10am and later on they removed the Angkor Wat picture away  after a heat of argument. According to report, those arrogant Thais are still staying at the hotel now. Read new in Khmer here.

NOTE: IF those arrogant Thais claimed that to place Angkor Wat picture in fornt of toilet doesn’t mean an insult on Angkor Wat or Cambodians, but just a sign of welcoming guests, then let’s place the picture of Thai King Bhumibol Adoljadej in front of our toilet in order to welcome our guests, too.

We still remember last year that a Thai man was arrested and jailed in Banteaymean Chey for insulting Angkor Wat temple by drawing Angkor Wat temple in front of his toilet and step on it daily. Read it here. With this, I hope Cambodian authority will deal with those arrogant Thais accordingly.

Eyewitness on Seh Daeng assassination bid

Originally posted at: Political Prisoners in Thailand

May 14,2010 at 8:40 pm

PPT doesn’t usually post much material that is not in newspapers or other media. However, this note from a reader struck as being of potential interest in the current murky circumstances:

Seh Daeng

Eyewitness account i’ve been sent of sae daeng shooting – please use but don’t mention me

“I was at Sala Deang area near the MRT station. A group of us reported about noise coming from the the Dusit hotel. What looked like a long stick extended from the roof top. Within minutes, the general (Seh Daeng) was speaking to his supporters, offering water to an elderly lady and giving her a hug. Moments later, a shot was heard from overhead. The object had been pulled back and a man with a black hood stood up and walked away. About 5 min. later. A man wearing the same outfit was escorted out of the hotel into a black police van. Quickly, it took off and proceeded to go up Rama 4 and turned left to go towards MBK.

Military officers where seen smiling and shaking each others hands from this killing of this man.

Our party was told by an army officer.

You have seen nothing, go back to your hotel at once or you will be arrested and deported.

He repeated again and again. You’ve seen nothing, nothing to see here. Go back to your hotels.”