Description:
"Thailand is well-known for its pristine beaches
and spicy food. But this is not what attracts low
skilled migrants from neighboring countries into
the country. Prospects of work and security, higher
wages than they can earn at home and an
opportunity to explore new places and people
instead pull migrants from Cambodia, Laos,
Myanmar, Vietnam and even China into Thailand.
Thailand?s rapid economic growth has created
wealth and opportunities. Development has
resulted in increased demand for labour, or to
be more precise, cheap low skilled foreign labour
to do dirty, dangerous and difficult work that
Thais often will not themselves do. To sustain a
growing economy and in order to compete in
international markets for low cost export of
goods, Thailand continues to be dependent on
a cheap migrant workforce of more than 2 million
people.
However for more than two decades since the
early 1990s, policy makers in Thailand have not,
at least until more recently, been willing or able
to effectively regularise migration flows into the
country. As a result, and left without legal and
official means to enter Thailand, migrant workers,
employers and industries employing migrants
turn to smugglers to get workers into the country
to fill significant gaps in the labour market. These
smugglers, usually referred to as ?brokers,? may
be complete strangers to the migrant workers
themselves. But sometimes they are closely
linked to friends and relatives. Links with officials
on both sides of Thailand?s borders is an
undeniable reality.
The push factors in migrant home countries that
bring them to Thailand include poverty, a lack
of opportunities for work and earning money
and repressive political environments - sometimes
even physical repression from their own
governments. When migrants hear stories from
friends and relatives about well-paid jobs in
Thailand, their decision to migrate is inevitable.
Yet without legal documents, knowledge about
Thailand?s employment system and an inability
to read and speak the Thai language, migrants
rely on brokers not only to smuggle them into
the country but also, unless they already have
strong networks in Thailand, to find them work,
accommodation and a new life.
For too many, this position of vulnerability means
that before they even realise it, migrants have
been sold into a situation where they are working
long hours without rest or pay on a fishing boat,
their freedom of movement is restricted on a
Snap Shot Stories from Invisible Victims of Trafficking in Thailand
Source/publisher:
Mahidol Migration Center (MMC)
Date of Publication:
2011-10-00
Date of entry:
2012-01-03
Grouping:
- Individual Documents
Category:
Language:
Thai
Local URL:
Format:
pdf
Size:
1.02 MB