deportation?
***By ANDY HALL**
ON JANUARY 20, in just eight working days, the end of the "permission to
stay and work in Thailand for one year, pending deportation" will arrive
for 61,543 Burmese, Cambodian and Laotian migrants who "illegally" entered
the country. As the first migrant work-permit-renewal deadline of the year
it is, however, somewhat different to past deadlines. For, if any of these
workers refuse to go through the Thai government's Nationality Verification
(NV) process, policy announcements suggest they will be deported. Whether
deportation starts then or on February 28 - the "final" deadline to agree
to NV or be deported for the other million or so registered migrants whose
work permits expire on that day - remains unclear.
NV is the Thai government's policy to formalise the status of some of the
approximately two million migrants from Burma, Cambodian and Laos currently
working in Thailand. These workers contribute an estimated 5-6 per cent of
Thailand's GDP and make up around five per cent of the nation's workforce.
For these people who work in Thailand's most dangerous, dirty and demeaning
jobs, NV is apparently required because they left their countries without
permission and entered Thailand "illegally". They are currently
nationality-less labourers. As around 90 per cent of these workers are from
Burma and in the most unenviable position of all, urgent attention must be
given to this group.
**CLEAR CHOICE**
Migrants from Burma have since 2008 been given a clear choice by the Thai
government. Whatever their ethnicity or personal histories, they must send
their biographical details to the Burmese government and see if it agrees
that they are "Burmese". If "no", no one yet knows what would happen to
them as the Thai government has yet to make any policy announcements on
this issue and it is unclear where they could be deported too. But if
"yes", they can request permission from the Interior Ministry to leave
their province of registration and return for NV in Burma. Cambodian and
Laotian workers have the luxury of their officials coming to see them in
Thailand, but Burma has for years refused such a sensible step, giving the
Thai government an understandable headache! If once migrants arrive in
Burma they are not arrested - rumours continue to abound they will be - and
are "approved" as being Burmese, they will get a three-year Bt100 (3,000
kyat) "temporary" passport. These "Burmese" nationals then return to
Thailand "legally" and receive a Bt500 two-year visa. Total costs: Bt600.
However, the NV process is not as easy as it seems. There are 13 steps
involving at least three Thai ministries, the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok
and a few more Burmese ministries. Unless you like adventure, employers and
migrants are well advised to hire a broker for the journey. According to a
Labour Ministry statement on December 22, in response to a Thai PBS
documentary on these brokers, an ever increasing number of broker companies
has been approved by the Burmese Embassy and have nothing to do with the
Labour Ministry. This is despite the fact they are all based in and
registered in Thailand. Costs for NV increase from around Bt600 to Bt6,000
with a broker. And that does not include the yearly fees for a work permit
(Bt1,800), health check-up (Bt600) and health insurance (Bt1,300). For
migrants who often earn as little as Bt4,000-5,000 per month, it's a small
fortune most would prefer to send to their families in Burma. Most still
have not paid off debts for the last work permit renewal. Costs are just
one part of the equation, however. Security risks associated with the
involvement of the Burmese government in NV weigh heavily on migrants'
minds, as does the suspected relationship between NV and the 2010 Burmese
elections.
However, there seems to be more pressing problems. The Labour Ministry has
yet to announce its policy on renewal of migrant work permits that expire
on January 20 or February 28. The government has also yet to officially
announce what it will do given that as a result of high costs, lack of
transparency, perceived insecurity, multi-layered bureaucracy and a lack of
public awareness (by both migrants and employers) associated with NV, in
almost one year only around 6,000 migrants from Burma have completed the
process. In addition, NV relates just to the 1 million-plus migrants
currently registered. There are at least a million more workers
unregistered.
The Alien Workers Management Committee (AWMC) apparently decided on
December 21, 2009 that it would submit the following recommendations to the
Cabinet to deal with this unfortunate mess: (1) An extension of NV from
February 28, 2010 for two years to allow all those concerned to get their
act together and make NV a success; (2) Only migrants who are currently
registered and agree to NV should be allowed to stay in Thailand and renew
their work permits during these two years. For others, mass deportation
presumably starts?
The Thai government seems to be making it clear that February 28 is the
end of the era of year-on-year piecemeal migrant registration in Thailand
and the move to NV. Thailand will no longer allow the country to be overrun
by "illegal" migrants and all import and export of migrants must now be
formalised between governments. MoUs with Cambodia, Laos and Burma must be
made to work effectively. All eyes are now on the Cabinet (perhaps during
the meeting tomorrow) where the AWMC recommendations will either be
approved, modified or rejected. The Human Rights and Development
Foundation's Migrant Justice Programme (MJP) comes into contact daily with
migrants from Burma whose work permits expire on January 20. Fear,
sleepless nights and stress are building in migrant communities. What if
work permits are not renewed, especially for the significant number of
migrants who have been working and living in Thailand for more than 10
years now? Migrants are considering if they shall have to go underground
within days, or even just give up with a free deportation journey home to
Burma to start a new chapter in their confusing lives.
As usual, the policy decision from the Cabinet is keenly awaited by
migrant communities from Burma and makes once again for their precarious
existence. But this year the executive decision is later than usual in
coming. If all this is formalised tomorrow, that leaves just five working
days for over 60,000 migrants (if they have agreed to NV) to renew their
work permits. Migrants, employers and officials feel a last-minute
administrative headache coming on again.
But more worryingly, is January 20 also the first round of mass
deportations of those migrants who refuse to go through NV, with the second
round coming soon after on February 28? At MJP, we also hear daily what
migrants who refuse to go through NV think about returning to life in
Burma. Given many refusing to go through NV are from Burma's ethnic
minorities, we hear about their past lives in Shan, Karen or Mon states. We
also hear what they think about going underground again and the pressures
on them as being for years the breadwinners for their families.
**EAGERLY AWAITING POLICY**
That leaves us also eagerly awaiting the Thai government's policy
regarding the potentially mass deportations of such huge numbers of
migrants, especially after the recent international attention given to
Hmong and Rohingya incidents. We receive some comfort from Thailand's
statement in the UN's Human Rights Council on June 2, 2009, in which it
said, "Thailand attaches importance to the rights of all migrant workers,
and well recognises their valuable contribution to our labour market." But
the recent return home of thousands of Hmong sends a shiver up our spines.
We are concerned at this time not only for our friends and our communities,
but also for employers and the Thai economy, which continues to be heavily
dependent on these workers.
Mass deportation is surely not possible, right? But if mass deportation
did go ahead, would the government ensure it was "real" deportation and not
the usual arrest and costly release processes we have all seen for years?
Would migrants return to Thailand on the same day as they were deported to
Burma and things go on as normal?
The migrant-worker issue in Thailand will take on increased importance
this year. Let's hope that the winners are migrants, their employers and
the economy, and the losers irregular migration, bureaucracy, lack of
transparency and even violence.
***Andy Hall is the director of the Human Rights and Development Foundation's
Migrant Justice Programme.
***Managing migration in 2010: effective registration or effective
deportation?
***By ANDY HALL**
ON JANUARY 20, in just eight working days, the end of the "permission to
stay and work in Thailand for one year, pending deportation" will arrive
for 61,543 Burmese, Cambodian and Laotian migrants who "illegally" entered
the country. As the first migrant work-permit-renewal deadline of the year
it is, however, somewhat different to past deadlines. For, if any of these
workers refuse to go through the Thai government's Nationality Verification
(NV) process, policy announcements suggest they will be deported. Whether
deportation starts then or on February 28 - the "final" deadline to agree
to NV or be deported for the other million or so registered migrants whose
work permits expire on that day - remains unclear.
NV is the Thai government's policy to formalise the status of some of the
approximately two million migrants from Burma, Cambodian and Laos currently
working in Thailand. These workers contribute an estimated 5-6 per cent of
Thailand's GDP and make up around five per cent of the nation's workforce.
For these people who work in Thailand's most dangerous, dirty and demeaning
jobs, NV is apparently required because they left their countries without
permission and entered Thailand "illegally". They are currently
nationality-less labourers. As around 90 per cent of these workers are from
Burma and in the most unenviable position of all, urgent attention must be
given to this group.
**CLEAR CHOICE**
Migrants from Burma have since 2008 been given a clear choice by the Thai
government. Whatever their ethnicity or personal histories, they must send
their biographical details to the Burmese government and see if it agrees
that they are "Burmese". If "no", no one yet knows what would happen to
them as the Thai government has yet to make any policy announcements on
this issue and it is unclear where they could be deported too. But if
"yes", they can request permission from the Interior Ministry to leave
their province of registration and return for NV in Burma. Cambodian and
Laotian workers have the luxury of their officials coming to see them in
Thailand, but Burma has for years refused such a sensible step, giving the
Thai government an understandable headache! If once migrants arrive in
Burma they are not arrested - rumours continue to abound they will be - and
are "approved" as being Burmese, they will get a three-year Bt100 (3,000
kyat) "temporary" passport. These "Burmese" nationals then return to
Thailand "legally" and receive a Bt500 two-year visa. Total costs: Bt600.
However, the NV process is not as easy as it seems. There are 13 steps
involving at least three Thai ministries, the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok
and a few more Burmese ministries. Unless you like adventure, employers and
migrants are well advised to hire a broker for the journey. According to a
Labour Ministry statement on December 22, in response to a Thai PBS
documentary on these brokers, an ever increasing number of broker companies
has been approved by the Burmese Embassy and have nothing to do with the
Labour Ministry. This is despite the fact they are all based in and
registered in Thailand. Costs for NV increase from around Bt600 to Bt6,000
with a broker. And that does not include the yearly fees for a work permit
(Bt1,800), health check-up (Bt600) and health insurance (Bt1,300). For
migrants who often earn as little as Bt4,000-5,000 per month, it's a small
fortune most would prefer to send to their families in Burma. Most still
have not paid off debts for the last work permit renewal. Costs are just
one part of the equation, however. Security risks associated with the
involvement of the Burmese government in NV weigh heavily on migrants'
minds, as does the suspected relationship between NV and the 2010 Burmese
elections.
However, there seems to be more pressing problems. The Labour Ministry has
yet to announce its policy on renewal of migrant work permits that expire
on January 20 or February 28. The government has also yet to officially
announce what it will do given that as a result of high costs, lack of
transparency, perceived insecurity, multi-layered bureaucracy and a lack of
public awareness (by both migrants and employers) associated with NV, in
almost one year only around 6,000 migrants from Burma have completed the
process. In addition, NV relates just to the 1 million-plus migrants
currently registered. There are at least a million more workers
unregistered.
The Alien Workers Management Committee (AWMC) apparently decided on
December 21, 2009 that it would submit the following recommendations to the
Cabinet to deal with this unfortunate mess: (1) An extension of NV from
February 28, 2010 for two years to allow all those concerned to get their
act together and make NV a success; (2) Only migrants who are currently
registered and agree to NV should be allowed to stay in Thailand and renew
their work permits during these two years. For others, mass deportation
presumably starts?
The Thai government seems to be making it clear that February 28 is the
end of the era of year-on-year piecemeal migrant registration in Thailand
and the move to NV. Thailand will no longer allow the country to be overrun
by "illegal" migrants and all import and export of migrants must now be
formalised between governments. MoUs with Cambodia, Laos and Burma must be
made to work effectively. All eyes are now on the Cabinet (perhaps during
the meeting tomorrow) where the AWMC recommendations will either be
approved, modified or rejected. The Human Rights and Development
Foundation's Migrant Justice Programme (MJP) comes into contact daily with
migrants from Burma whose work permits expire on January 20. Fear,
sleepless nights and stress are building in migrant communities. What if
work permits are not renewed, especially for the significant number of
migrants who have been working and living in Thailand for more than 10
years now? Migrants are considering if they shall have to go underground
within days, or even just give up with a free deportation journey home to
Burma to start a new chapter in their confusing lives.
As usual, the policy decision from the Cabinet is keenly awaited by
migrant communities from Burma and makes once again for their precarious
existence. But this year the executive decision is later than usual in
coming. If all this is formalised tomorrow, that leaves just five working
days for over 60,000 migrants (if they have agreed to NV) to renew their
work permits. Migrants, employers and officials feel a last-minute
administrative headache coming on again.
But more worryingly, is January 20 also the first round of mass
deportations of those migrants who refuse to go through NV, with the second
round coming soon after on February 28? At MJP, we also hear daily what
migrants who refuse to go through NV think about returning to life in
Burma. Given many refusing to go through NV are from Burma's ethnic
minorities, we hear about their past lives in Shan, Karen or Mon states. We
also hear what they think about going underground again and the pressures
on them as being for years the breadwinners for their families.
**EAGERLY AWAITING POLICY**
That leaves us also eagerly awaiting the Thai government's policy
regarding the potentially mass deportations of such huge numbers of
migrants, especially after the recent international attention given to
Hmong and Rohingya incidents. We receive some comfort from Thailand's
statement in the UN's Human Rights Council on June 2, 2009, in which it
said, "Thailand attaches importance to the rights of all migrant workers,
and well recognises their valuable contribution to our labour market." But
the recent return home of thousands of Hmong sends a shiver up our spines.
We are concerned at this time not only for our friends and our communities,
but also for employers and the Thai economy, which continues to be heavily
dependent on these workers.
Mass deportation is surely not possible, right? But if mass deportation
did go ahead, would the government ensure it was "real" deportation and not
the usual arrest and costly release processes we have all seen for years?
Would migrants return to Thailand on the same day as they were deported to
Burma and things go on as normal?
The migrant-worker issue in Thailand will take on increased importance
this year. Let's hope that the winners are migrants, their employers and
the economy, and the losers irregular migration, bureaucracy, lack of
transparency and even violence.
***Andy Hall is the director of the Human Rights and Development Foundation's
Migrant Justice Programme.
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