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At the Community Hall: Prof. Gothom Arya translates from Thai to English. |
Wanted! Laborers willing to work in dangerous, difficult
and dirty conditions, for low pay and no job security. Chances are that nobody
reading this will be tempted to give up their jobs for such an opportunity.
But countries throughout the world depend on supplies of migrant workers willing
to leave their families and homes, and travel to better off countries to do
jobs that locals are unwilling to do. Affluent middle class professionals in
New York and Los Angeles employ Nicaraguan and Mexican women to take care of
their kids and clean their toilets. Thailand’s economic development is
driven by industries that require plentiful supplies of cheap, unskilled labor,
and increasingly migrant workers arrive from across Thailand’s borders
to meet these industries’ needs.
Starting in August 2003, AIT incorporated into its academic
curricula Institute-wide Courses (IWC). These multidisciplinary and crosscutting
courses aim to strengthen students’ commitment to the sustainable development
of the region. Courses so far have addressed issues as diverse as human rights,
gender, culture, corruption, international organizations and their roles in
development.
Sixty students from across AIT’s four Schools are
now attending Human Rights and Development in Asia (IN 00.9004) course taught
by former AIT Registrar Prof. Gothom Arya. As part of their coursework, students
– the largest number of whom are from SAT – look at employment issues,
including the rights of migrant workers. With this in mind, the students were
taken on an exposure visit on Saturday, 10 July, 2004 to Samut Sakorn to explore
and observe the situation of Burmese migrant workers in Thailand. Of the roughly
one million migrants presently working in Thailand, 80 percent are from Myanmar.
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Short brief about the location |
This month, Thailand has introduced new regulations for
the registration of migrant workers, who now no longer need to their employers
or landlords to accompany them to district offices to fill out the registration
forms. The new registration policy will allow migrant workers to seek health
coverage under the Thai national healthcare system. They should also be eligible
for work permits at the end of the registration period, entitling them to full
labor protection.
The rationale for the course is for students to understand
the relationship between the existence of widespread basic human rights, conflicts
related to movement of migrant workers, and development in every country. In
the long run, it is also expected that students will eventually be able, through
their work and employment practices, to play an important role in the sustainable
development of the region.
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Trawlers awaiting offload of morning catch |
The issue of human rights, although universal, is prominent
in the developing regions, especially in South Asia which is home to more than
one billion people, many of whom are suffering from poverty, illiteracy, consequences
of internal armed conflicts and discrimination due to cultural differences,
gender, language, and social status.
In Southeast Asia, we see the majority of migrant workers
from Indonesia and Philippines suffer abuses in Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia.
Similarly, workers from across the border in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos are
finding refuge in Thailand.
It is to one of these communities of migrant workers
that Prof. Gothom Arya exposed his students. Samut Sakorn is 20 km south of
Bangkok, and is home to thousands of migrant workers from Myanmar faced with
the 3D jobs: Dangerous, Dirty and Difficult works and are mostly shunned by
Thai workers. The 150,000 non-documented migrant workers in this community outnumber
the Thai labor force in the community. These workers are found in fisheries
and food processing industries, domestic works, agricultural and plantation
works and construction works. The majority are women.
At one of the community halls, officials from CARE International
and the Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma (TACDB) briefed the AIT
students on the plight of migrant workers not only in Samut Sakorn but throughout
Thailand. The overwhelming numbers and tales of these workers are quite disheartening.
The number of legally registered Burmese workers, a small fraction of the actual
whole, far outnumbers the total from Laos and Cambodia. Most are deprived of
basic health care services simply because they have not been able to afford
them. Other problems faced by Burmese migrants include environmental pollution,
sexual violence, corruption and imprisonment, HIV/AIDS, and the lack of basic
education for their children. Statistics show a growth rate of children among
the workers as 5,000 per year
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Just arrived: Burmese fishermen aboard a trawler |
To see work conditions first hand, students went to see
fishermen who had just docked after their morning catch. It was interesting
to note the vast number of Burmese workers offloading, sorting and transporting
the catch from a trawler. At this point in time, the only Thais at the location
were the owner, captain and navigator of each trawlers – three Thais per
boat.
The next stop was the Talaad Kung, one of the largest
shrimp markets in the country. Again, the labor force is dominated by Burmese
migrant workers who are solely responsible for sorting out shrimps based on
its size and sex, transporting and stacking baskets of shrimps. Similarly, the
owners are Thai. When we asked why there were no Thais working there, we were
informed that Thais are unwilling to work under such conditions.
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At Talaad Kung : Women predominate among Burmese migrant workers |
The TACDB Project Office raised an important question – how can we help people across and along the Thai-Burma border co-exist in peace and not subject them to a life of fear and suffering. The stories of migrant workers’ lives are often covered by the dark shadow of prejudice, as workers are prone to be taken advantage by others. We were told “Human Rights are in your hands – only you can make them realized or forgotten!” Let’s keep this as food for thought.
Twenty-three young professionals from Asia, and one from
Brazil, are now attending a special preparatory course for volunteers participating
in Fredskorpset’s South-South Exchange Program. The course started on 19
July, and lasts for three weeks, and is intended to prepare volunteers for living
and working in the host countries in the region.
Fredskorpset, the Norwegian volunteer service, facilitates
exchanges of young professionals between Norway and countries of the South.
Participants live and work in anther country for approximately 12 months, with
exchanges effected between partner institutions in Norway and a South country.
Exchange programs are intended to enable young professionals to use their skills
in working for a partner employer in another country.
In June 2002, Fredskorpset started a South-South exchange
program built on the same concept. This program facilitates exchanges between
partners in different countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia. The first
Fredskorpset exchange program among Asian countries started in May 2003, with
19 volunteers participating in the first preparatory course at AIT that month.
The exchange program involves partnerships between Fredskorpset and organizations in South countries. Participants in the second preparatory course have volunteered through organizations in diverse fields: Genomar Exchange Project (fish farming), Drik Exchange Project (media), Future In Our Hands (FIOH) Exchange Project (sustainable/ecological agriculture), and Forum Asia Exchange Project (human rights). Participants come from Mongolia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Brazil, the Philippines, China and Vietnam.
Drik: www.drik.net/Genomar:
www.genomar.no
Forum Asia: www.forumasia.org/
Fredskorpset: www.fredskorpset.net/?l=eng