16 Myanmar workers rescued from Malaysian fishing boat

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Sixteen Myanmar migrant workers, including three minors under 18 years old, who were allegedly ‘sold’ to a Malaysia fishing boat in southern Thailand were rescued by Thai officials on July 13, according to a Thai-based migrant rights groups.

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 “We were asked to rescue migrants on July 8, and we spent about four days collecting information about the victims and their location. After that we asked Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation to help rescue the victims,” said U Kyaw Thaung, director of the Myanmar Association in Thailand (MAT), on Monday.

He said that initially 13 Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand were sold by a broker to the Malaysian fishing boat that had docked with fake documents at Naya Thiwa Port, Pattani province, in Thailand.

U Kyaw Thaung said each worker had paid 17,000 baht to the broker to find jobs in Indonesia, but the broker sold them to the fishing boat instead.

“When we asked the DSI to help save our workers, it asked for a recommendation letter from the Myanmar Embassy. They rescued our migrants on July 13 when we provided the recommendation letter,” Ko Shwe Tun Aye, chair of Migrant Workers’ Network in Phuket, said Monday.

He said the workers were rescued with the help of the Thai army.

According to MAT, they also rescued other Myanmar migrants, one aged 14 and two aged 17, who had been sold by another broker to the fishing boat on the day the rescue team reached them.

According to U Kyaw Thaung, the 16 Myanmar workers were to be sent to a fishing vessel in Indonesia. Fifteen of the victims are from Rakhine State and one is from Bago Region.

All the rescued victims are being held at a detention center, and Thai officials are planning to arrest the brokers for human trafficking.

Source - mmtimes

Thailand - New work permit rules make for an uncertain May Day for migrant workers

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WORKING IN Thailand is becoming harder and more expensive for unskilled migrant workers from neighboring countries after the government imposed tougher policies addressing illegal |immigration.

Residing in the Kingdom for more than 12 years, 28-year-old Ei Dhan Dar from Myamar has already adapted to Thai society and can speak the language |fluently.

But despite her integration into society, she said she felt increasingly uncertain about her future in Thailand, since tough new regulations to register for work permits were issued, which entail a difficult and expensive process.

“Recently, I had to spend nearly Bt10,000 for the work permit registration fee and other related costs just to make my status legal, but I only earn Bt300 salary per day. It’s like we work hard to pay Thai bureaucrats and we are getting poorer in Thailand,” she said.

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“As I’ve lived in this country for a long time, I now feel that I have a bond with Thailand and I always hope that one day I can live comfortably in this country, but now I am not sure about this dream.”

Ei Dhan Dar is just one among hundreds of thousand migrant workers who have struggled to legalise their work status.

Labour Rights Promotion Network Foundation coordinator Surachai Mintun said his organisation had received many calls for help from migrant workers across the country, who had problems with the recent migrant worker registration, including some who were facing deportation.

“There are so many workers having problems with the registration because the regulation is unclear, specifies too short a period to register for a work permit, and lacks information for applicants,” Surachai said.

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According to the rule implemented this year, migrant workers who hold temporary pink identification cards have to register certificates of identity to get a passport and Thai visa, and then they have to register for a work permit within 15 days. If they fail to register within that period, their status will be illegal and they will be |subject to deportation.

The government cancelled its recognition of the temporary pink identification cards for migrant workers nationwide on March 31, requiring migrant workers to hold valid visas and work permits. There were an estimated 1.3 million migrant workers holding the temporary pink identification cards.

As a result of the rule, Surachai said migrant workers faced two major issues. First, many workers were unable to register for the work permit in time for various reasons, so even if they were |legally registered with authorities and holding a Thai visa, they |suddenly risked arrest and faced deportation.

The second problem is the cost of registration. Although the official cost was only Bt910, Surachai said, many workers had to employ an agent because the entire process was complicated and slow, which could cost as much as Bt10,000.

“It is very hard for workers to register by themselves because many of them cannot communicate in Thai and have limited knowledge about the bureaucratic procedures, so registering through an agent is the easiest way, but there is an extra financial burden,” he said.

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The tough new regulations are justified as an effort to tackle human trafficking and illegal migrant workers by the Labour Ministry.

Labour Ministry deputy permanent secretary Varanon Peetiwan has said the government wants to control the entire migrant labour system, meaning that all migrant workers should be brought to Thailand under the memorandum of understanding (MOU) system only.

Sakultara Bhupornwiwat, owner of a Samut Songkram squid processing factory, said she would like the government to reconsider the policy, because the MOU system was unreliable and unsuitable in practice.

“If I want to import workers via the MOU system, I have to pay a large amount of money first before the agent will recruit workers for me and there is no guarantee that I’ll get the workers. The business cannot rely on that,” Sakultara said.

“Moreover, the workers in the MOU system have to pay more than Bt10,000 in their home countries just to apply to work in Thailand. They cannot afford such an expensive fee. If they could pay that amount of money, why would they want to work in unskilled jobs in Thailand in the first place?”

She said that if the situation remained unchanged under the new policy, there would be a serious shortage of workers in the near future, which would harm not only her business but the country’s economy as a whole.

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Source - TheNation

Death penalty upheld in British backpacker case.

‘solid’ evidence two myanmar men killed britons on Koh Tao, rules Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal has upheld the death penalty against two Myanmar migrant workers for one of the most shocking crimes in Thailand’s history – the violent murders of two British backpackers on the resort island of Koh Tao.
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David Miller, 24, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, were fatally beaten on the beach on September 15, 2014. Witheridge was also raped.
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The gruesome crime made headlines in Thailand and across the world.
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Police arrested defendant Zaw Lin on Koh Tao – a part of Surat Thani province – about two weeks after the crime took place. Wai Phyo (Win Zaw Tun), the second defendant, was later arrested at a pier in Surat Thani town.
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The two defendants pled innocent and insisted that their initial confessions had been made under duress. Their legal team also tried to rebut evidence submitted by the plaintiff.
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The Criminal Court, however, ruled in December 2015 that there was sufficient evidence against the two migrant workers, convicting and sentencing them to death.
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After reviewing the evidence, the Court of Appeal concluded the defendants were guilty beyond doubt.
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“All items of evidence offered by the plaintiffs are reasonably linked and solid. The ruling is not made on any single piece of evidence but as a whole,” the court said.
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The court dismissed as unreasonable the defendants’ complaint that investigators had failed to record every step of the process in gathering evidence. The defendants argued that police did not have pictures of collecting samples from the female victim. “It’s not possible to take pictures of every step taken in a long process,” the court ruled.
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Nakhon Chomphuchat, a lawyer for the defendants, said they would now file a petition the Supreme Court.
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Both defendants are being held at the Bang Kwang Central Prison in Nonthaburi province.

They were informed of the Appeal Court’s ruling on February 23 at Nonthaburi Provincial Court, while the verdict was read out officially for the plaintiffs to hear at Samui Provincial Court yesterday, Nakhon said.
Source: TheNation

Thai tuna maker says slave labour report a "wake-up call"

The world's largest canned tuna maker Thai Union Group said any migrant labour abuse in the seafood industry was unacceptable following a report by the Associated Press.

The report found that shrimp processed in plants using forced and child labor in Thailand was  products sold in the US, Europe and Asia.

One of those plants allegedly supplied a subsidiary of Thai Union, AP reported.

Many workers have been tricked or sold to factories where they are forced to work long hours for little or no pay, the agency said.

US politicians have called for a boycott of the products, while Greenpeace called on the company and the Thai seafood sector to do more on the issue.

"Any illegal or unethical labour practices are unacceptable to Thai Union," Thai Union's chief executive Thiraphong Chansiri said.

"This is yet another wake up call not only to us, but to the entire industry."

The news comes as Thailand faces pressure from the European Union to clean up in another problem area in the industry - illegal fishing - or face a trade ban.

Thai Union's subsidiary Okeanus had terminated its relationship with a supplier it suspected of breaking its code of conduct, the company said in the statement.

Thai Union, which counts Wal-Mart and Costco Wholesale among buyers, said last week it had decided to stop working with external shrimp processing plants.

It would bring those operations in-house from Jan. 1, because it was difficult to guarantee external suppliers were following its rules, Thai Union said. The company would offer jobs to a thousand of the workers from those external processing plants.

Greenpeace called on the Thai Union to do more.

"The inaction by the entire industry and shiny PR moves are no longer acceptable," Greenpeace US oceans campaign director John Hocevar said.

"It is time for Thai Union and its buyers to audit and clean up every single link in their seafood supply chains - not just the one implicated in the latest of many investigations."

Thailand, the world's third-largest seafood exporter, was given six months by the European Union in April to address issues that had allowed fish caught illegally to enter the supply chain.

The US State Department said in a report this year on human trafficking that some Thai and migrant workers were subjected to forced labour on Thai fishing boats.

Story: Reuters

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