Burmese Migrant Worker Abuse
Burmese migrant worker abuse is rampant in Thailand.
One 19 year old Karen worker told me that the Thai police were known to abuse and harass workers on a weekly basis, even if they did have a work permit, they were still expected to pay the police to prevent further abuse
With the current state of Burma’s economy, hundreds of thousands of Burmese workers seek employment in neighbouring countries, away from the oppressive military-led State Peace and Development Council, with the most popular destination being Thailand.
An estimated one million Burmese migrant workers are currently in Thailand, but the official numbers only list half of those as being registered with the Thai authorities. The remainder seek employment performing any jobs that allow them to support their families on both sides of the border.
Inside Burma, many are forced into labour by the SPDC, often with no remuneration but in Thailand they are given the chance of earning a small wage.
Migrant workers usually work in the following sectors of the Thai economy: domestic, garment and factory, agriculture and fisheries. Hours are often long, most shifts in the factories start at 7 am and often finish after 9 pm with no overtime payment scheme in place.
Many Thai’s are refusing to perform menial jobs, often hiring Burmese to perform these tasks. These workers usually make the trip from the border regions to Bangkok in search of a small daily wage, often lower than the official Thai daily wage.
The most common complaints from Burmese workers are that of abuse at the hands of their employers, unfair wage disputes, discrimination and in some cases, physical abuse. Burmese are viewed as lower class by Thai’s and often subject to inhumane treatment at the hand of their employers.
If accommodation is supplied, the workers are often charged high rents for a single room and in most cases 8 people will share the living space that is no more than a 7 ft square box.At the border town of Mae Sot, in Northern Thailand, The Peoples Volunteer Association and the Young Chi Oo Burmese Workers Association aim to help Burmese where necessary.
Here I met Phoe Nge, 19, who was shot 7 times by his employer and then left for dead. His crime was that of the bosses wife taking an interest in him. He was asked to visit his boss’s house and was held by the boss’s associates and shot repeatedly. He eventually managed to escape and ran to a friends house, bleeding profusely. Upon arrival at his friends house, he passed out and was rushed to hospital.
Phoe Nge still has a bullet lodged in his back and is recovering from the surgery whilst staying at a safe house provided by the PVA.
Other people I interviewed had been beaten and in some cases, raped by their employers. A small number of cases resulted in murder. The problem stems from the fact that most workers are illegal and often don’t have the same rights as citizens, allowing them protection from abuse, which prevents them from speaking out in fear of being deported back to Burma.
The PVA and Young Chi Oo Burmese Workers Association try to defend workers rights in the Thai border town and have won a handful of large cases against employers who abuse workers. They both keep a list of cases of abuse against the workers and use the legal system where possible to bring the attackers and employers to justice.
In addition to employment issues, the Burmese also struggle with social integration, with domestic violence a big cause for concern. The PVA and Young Chio Oo offer advice and support to all Burmese families and try and prevent domestic violence at home.
Both groups operate illegally in Thailand as Thai law does not allow Burmese associations to be created inside Thailand, but Thai officials try to solve this issue by giving the aid workers cards to identify themselves to the police.
Workers who do speak out about the abuses are often fired and face deportation back to Burma. The PVA have recorded cases whereby factory owners have refused to pay workers the salary owed at the end of a month and called in the Thai Police to have the workers arrested and deported as illegal immigrants.
Mae Sot has numerous textile and garment factories. In most cases observed, Burmese workers made up the majority of workers inside the factories. Workers are paid, on average, 70 Thai Baht (R17/$1.50) a day for a 10 hour shift
Not all factory owners abuse their workers. The one factory I did get access to admitted using the Burmese workers, as they were cheaper than Thai labour, but did admit that working conditions were better than others. I was invited inside the factory, which is often out of reach from any westerner in the region, and conditions were suitable.
Thailand does offer a registration system for migrant workers, but the system has many flaws and many key problems still exist, which often leads to the workers being vulnerable to exploitation.
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Phoe Nge
I’ve just uploaded my story on the abuse of Burmese Migrant Workers. This is Phoe Nge, who was shot 7 times by his employer. You can read it over at Verbal…
nice set mate. you back in SA now?! Is this gonna be your July submission?!?! Couple of quick questions – do you speak thai and how did you approach the project (access etc?!!) Just curious – as always!
Looking good mate, is any of this shot in myanmar or is it all in thailand? When you go about looking for outlets for this do you email the text aswell? Or are you one of those jokers that just mentions it on their blog and then has to stop everyone finding over the rights to it?
Yup back in SA but off to London tomorrow…
No, it won’t be my July submission, I’ll be concentrating on the People of Durban series. Just don’t feel this is good enough for that. I do speak basic Thai,so that helped.
As for gaining access, the husband of the fixer I used in Thailand is Burmese and we got talking about the ideas for a story I wanted to do, concentrating on the situation in Burma. We headed up to Mae Sot, which is the border between Thailand and Burma and started arranging to meet the various people and whilst we were waiting, decided to look at this angle.
It ended up working out well as a mini story.
Love the name
This was all shot in and around Mae Sot in Thailand, as it’s where most of the garment factories are found.
I do send in the text, I think it helps with the story and gives them a better understanding of the images.
I wish people were fighting for the rights!!!!
Mae Sot Factory
Mae Sot has numerous textile and garment factories. In most cases observed, Burmese workers made up the majority of workers inside the factories. Workers are paid, on average, 70 Thai Baht (R17/$1.50) a day for a 10 hour shift…
I think the story is good; but i’d like to see more images if you have them…..you self funded this project or it was a commission?
To me as you say yourself it doesnt look like youre best work…with time, access and the difficulty of the subject matter,
it doesnt feel finished; was it part of another trip or holiday.
But if the beeb etc will publish it great!…but because of the important issues it raises….
Maybe thats how its moving now…subject matter of aesthitics?…
but i think with the Durban series they both work together better…but to publishers its a less dramatic story as well…
How do you approach publishers?..or are you already connected Daniel because of earlier published stories. or you are agency represented via the durban paper.
For the durban work..youre using film?…
How long are you staying in Thailand?…as i have a photographer friend living there working as a fixer and tour guide… i also have family in Montclair durban, but i havnt spoken to them for a long time…
Hey Daniel, just taken a look at this work and its looking really promising. The text is really researched and thorough and you ave obviously put in a lot of time with your connections over there to get so much information. I took agree with Kirk and would like to see more images as the ‘set’ above doesn’t feel complete to me but then maybe you just put up a very rough edit. In any case this is really good work and has loads of potential and seems to me worthy of pursing whether you use if for July or not. As you say, your Durban work is probably the way to go for July as you have done so much already…keep it up, well done! Amelia
Hi Daniel,
Great idea and pictures – you obviously worked really hard at getting the access because the subject is so tough.
I agree with Kirk that it would be good to see more pictures. Expecially 2 and 4 are striking.
From a purely journalistic point of view, I would have suggested using your last paragraph as your first – drawing people into the story with the striking first-person experience at the start of the piece, then bringing in the general and heavy details/truths later on.
Also, it’s difficult to write and seems really cheesy at the time, but some jourmalistic colour at the start can help to draw people in and lift the story off the page. Maybe the piece could have started off with Phoe Nge -where did you meet him? What did he look like when you met him – was he tired? Weary? What did he say when he met you… can you bring in the rest of the story from this starting point…
Just some ideas really, not meant to be taken as criticism at all as this is a really well done piece and a fascinating story. Thanks for sharing it.
I am doing a similar piece on abuse. I will keep you posted!!
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[...] while back, Burma Issues, asked me if they could use one of the images I took inside a Burmese garment factory for a cover of their latest publication. It was recently published and I’m glad to be [...]