NEWS - Myanmar workers say hampered

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Subject: NEWS - Myanmar workers say hampered in Thai repatriation

Myanmar workers say hampered in Thai repatriation

By Sutin Wannabovorn

  
MAE SOT, Thailand, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Several thousand illegal workers
crossed back home to Myanmar voluntarily from this border town on
Thursday, many complaining their Thai employers had tried to prevent
them joining a repatriation drive. 

Several of the workers waiting for a ferry to take them across the Moei
River and back to Myanmar said their employers had tried to stop their
departures by confiscating ID cards, refusing to pay salaries and
detaining some workers in factories. 

Thailand, hit by economic crisis over the past two years, used to host
around one million Myanmar workers. Some 300,000 illegal workers were
repatriated last year and on November 4 Bangkok announced a scheme to
send home a further 600,000. 

The plan has been slammed by some Thai employers, who say their
businesses would be ruined without the workers who were used mostly in
low-paid jobs in farming and fishing. 

EMPLOYERS TRIED TO STOP DEPARTURES 

Around 70,000 of the workers have jobs in Mae Sot, which lies opposite
eastern Myanmar's Karen State. 

The mostly women workers flocked from early morning to the river that
separates Thailand from Myanmar. 

``My employer has not paid me for more than two months,'' said Moe Moe,
22, who fled from a nearby garment factory. 

In the town, about 300 Myanmar women staged a sit-in at the office of
one textile firm, complaining colleagues had been detained in their
factory. Male workers led police to another factory where more than 100
were detained. 

``This company didn't pay us for a month and illegally detained us,''
employee Nai Nai told Reuters. ``Please help us. Once we get our
salaries we will go back (to Myanmar) immediately.'' 

Soraphol Payoongveeranoi, deputy chief of Mae Sot immigration, said
employers were doing their utmost to keep workers. 

``They are keeping identity cards, not paying salaries and spreading
rumours about threats to kill returnees,'' he said. 

On Tuesday, police accused employers of spreading rumours that deportees
had been killed and raped. Myanmar's military government has called the
reports ``appalling fabrications.'' 

STRAINED RELATIONS NO HURDLE 

The Thai programme came amid strained relations with its neighbour. 

Myanmar closed its border with Thailand on October 1 after five armed
Myanmar dissidents seized Yangon's the embassy in Bangkok and held 89
hostages for 25 hours. Yangon was angered when Bangkok ended the siege
by allowing the attackers safe passage to the border. 

Soraphol said Myanmar officials had done nothing to obstruct the
repatriation. A Myanmar official who crossed the river to monitor the
returnees told Reuters all were welcome. 

On Wednesday about 500 employers rallied in Mae Sot to protest against
the repatriations. 

The authorities said they would consider allowing 30,000 agricultural
workers to stay, but those in the textile, garment, canning and
furniture industries would have to go back. 

05:03 11-11-99