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BURMA RELATED NEWS - October
04, 2001.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - Forests rapidly disappearing in tropics
but growing in Europe: UN agency
AFP - New report sounds alarm over AIDS in
Asia
Reuters - HK allows 15 airlines to levy
insurance surcharges
Dow Jones - Thai Indus Min In Talks With Premier
Oil To Cut Gas Price
BBC - Burma confiscates WTC videos
BBC - Aids wake-up call for Asia
The Star - Help for freed Malaysians in
Myanmar
Free Realtime - U. Virginia examines investments
in Unocal due to Burma controversy
Bkk Post - Surakiart, Khin Nyunt meet again
Bkk Post - Rangoon
agrees to set up camps for rejected workers
SCMP - Permit aimed at ending abuse of
illegal immigrant workers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday October 3, 11:38 PM
Forests rapidly disappearing in tropics but growing in Europe: UN agency GENEVA, Oct 3, (AFP) - Forests
are disappearing at a rapid rate in tropical countries but are on the increase
in Europe where they help to protect biodiversity and provide jobs, said a new
report published in Geneva on Wednesday by the UN's Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO).
But the biggest threat to successful forest management is corruption and
illegal forest practices, the FAO said in its biannual report, State of the
World's Forests 2001.
"During the 1990s, the loss of natural forests was 16.1 million hectares
per year, of which 15.2 million occurred in the tropics", the organisation
explained. Deforestation was highest in Africa and South America.
The organisation said the major cause for the loss and degradation of
natural forests was conversion to other land uses and to agriculture in
particular.
Only one million hectares of this lost land was later re-used for forest
plantations, it said.
"The countries with the highest net loss of forest area between 1990 and
2000 were Argentina, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia,
Myanmar, Mexico, Nigeria, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe," said the report.
Elsewhere, however, natural forests have been growing at a rate of 3.6
million hectares a year, mainly in non-tropical countries, it said.
"Forest expansion has been occurring for several decades in many
industrialised countries, especially where agriculture is no longer an
economically viable land use," the FAO said.
The report particularly aimed to debunk various myths about the state of
European forests which it said were now expanding by about 880 thousand hectares
a year.
It pointed out that Russia's forest area was the world's largest at 851
million hectares, a fifth of the global total.
In the rest of Europe, it said: "Forests cover about 38 percent of the land
area, conserving biodiversity, protecting against erosion and providing
employment, recreation, wood and a wide range of other goods and services, many
of them not yet economically valued.
"This counteracts their relative lack of importance in conventional GDP
calculations," it said.
In terms of area, the biggest net gains of forest were in China, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation and the United States. In many cases, these
were boosted by specific plantation policies.
Out of a total of 3.1 million hectares of forest planted each year, 1.2
million was in non-tropical areas.
But the report warned that efforts to improve forest management will only
be successful by fighting crime and corruption. "Illegal and corrupt activities
threaten the world's forests in many countries, particularly but not exclusively
in forest-rich developing countries," it said.
And in some cases, the FAO claimed illegal logging and trade appeared to be
growing as a consequence of trade liberalization and globalization.
It listed a range of illegal forest practices such as the approval of
illegal contracts with private enterprises by public servants, the harvesting of
protected trees by commercial corporations and the smuggling of forest products
across borders.
High timber values, low government official salaries and a large number of
poorly-designed regulations are amongst other factors which the FAO said create
a favourable environment for forest crime and corruption.
Other factors which the report cited for loss of natural forests include
atmospheric pollution, high winds and drought which have contributed to a range
of severe fires across the world.
Regarding bans and restrictions on commercial logging, the report said they
had contributed to conservation in some countries but in others "they have
negatively affected the forest sector and local communities or have simply
transferred the problem of overharvesting to other countries."
Sustainable forest management and forest certification, however, was
gaining momentum, according to the report, with an estimated 12 percent of the
world's forests under protected area status.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday October 4, 11:38 AM
New report sounds alarm over AIDS in Asia MELBOURNE, Australia, Oct 4 (AFP) - Asia risks an explosion of HIV infection
unless governments wake up to the problem, a report released on the eve of the
Sixth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP)
warns.
The report, released Thursday, warns there is clear potential for an
extensive spread of HIV if preventive action is too little or too late.
Early and large-scale preventive action has kept prevalence low in parts of
Asia but according to "Status and Trends of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Asia and
the Pacific," these low HIV infection rates do not necessarily mean rates will
remain low forever.
"Some countries in the region began prevention efforts early and they are
reaping the benefits today," Peter Piot, executive director of the Joint United
Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), said.
"Elsewhere, however, epidemics will continue their natural course unless
prevention programmes quickly reach the population groups most vulnerable to
"HIV related stigma and discrimination remain an immense barrier to
effectively fighting the most devastating epidemic humanity has ever known,"
Piot added.
Although only three Asian countries -- Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand --
have registered nationwide prevalence rates of over one percent, the report says
these low rates mask an uneven geographic spread.
It says that national figures are meaningless in huge countries like China
and India, where some states or provinces have larger populations than most of
the world's countries.
The report, published by Monitoring the AIDS Pandemic (MAP), an
international network of HIV experts, warns that recent HIV increases in
specific locations should be seen as a serious warning of a more widespread
epidemic.
In the Guangxi province in China, 9.9 percent of sex workers were found to
have HIV in the second quarter of 2000 but the figure rose to 10.7 percent by
the fourth quarter.
And in Vietnam, infection levels are rising quickly, in some cases
exponentially.
In Ho Chi Minh City, HIV infection rates among sex workers and their
clients increased from virtually nil in 1996 to more than 20 percent in
2000.
Recent data from Indonesia -- where for many years the epidemic was
virtually undetectable -- also shows a significant increase in HIV.
Indonesia has recorded a jump in HIV among sex workers from six percent to
26 percent in three centres, with several recorded HIV outbreaks among injecting
drug users around the country.
Nationally, the proportion of blood donors infected -- in this context, an
indication of HIV spread in the population at large -- increased significantly,
from almost nothing in the early 1990s to one per 1,000 in
HIV infection among pregnant women, often used as an indicator of HIV
penetration into the general population, is also quite significant in some
countries.
The report warns that China, Indonesia and Vietnam are in a transitional
phase and may be on the brink of potentially explosive epidemics.
And it calls for prevention programmes targeting the general population to
be put in place alongside programmes for high-risk groups.
Professor Anthony Smith from the Australian Research Centre on Sex, Health
and Society said sexual inequality was eroding efforts to curb the spread of
HIV/AIDS in the Asian-Pacific region.
"In a country like India, for example, culturally-held ideas about gender
frame the way in which HIV/AIDS prevention programs are developed and
implemented," he added.
India has 3.7 million people infected with HIV/AIDS, out of a total of 6.4
million people for all Asia and the Pacific.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday October 4, 5:56 PM
HK allows 15 airlines to levy insurance surcharges HONG KONG, Oct 4 (Reuters) -
Hong Kong's Civil Aviation Department on Thursday gave the green light for 15
airlines to levy insurance surcharges on passengers on Hong Kong routes.
A department spokeswoman told Reuters the approval takes immediate effect
for three months, up to January 4, 2002.
Aviation insurance costs have risen since the September 11 attacks in the
United States. Airlines all over the world are reacting by passing the charge
onto passengers.
The 15 airlines that have secured approval from the Civil Aviation
Department to impose insurance surcharges include the two locally-based
passenger carriers -- Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd <0293.HK> and Hong Kong
Dragon Airlines Ltd (Dragonair).
A Cathay spokeswoman said the airline started introducing an insurance
surcharge of US$4 or HK$32 per sector, or per flight coupon, on Thursday
afternoon. Some routes would be subject to the surcharge sooner than others, and
passengers who purchased tickets before Thursday would not be affected, she
said.
"If the situation changes, we can take out this surcharge," she added.
A Dragonair spokeswoman said the airline had yet to decide when to start
levying its planned surcharge of HK$32 per sector.
A sector is a continuous leg of flight without stop-overs. So a flight with
one stopover makes two sectors, and the outward and return journeys together
make a total of four sectors.
The two Hong Kong carriers said their airfares remained unchanged.
Below is a table of the 15 airlines and the proposed surcharges.
AIRLINES PROPOSED INSURANCE SURCHARGE
Cathay Pacific US$4/HK$32 per flight coupon
Dragonair HK$32 per air segment
Asiana Airlines <20560.KQ> US$1.25/HK$10 per sector
KLM Royal Dutch US$5 per ticket coupon
Gulf Air US$5/HK$39 per sector
Singapore Airlines (Singapore: SIAL.SI - news) US$1.25 per sector
Emirates Airline [EMAIR.UL] HK$40 per sector
Philippine Airlines [PHL.UL] US$6 per sector
Thai Airways Intl US$1.25 per coupon
Korean Air <03490.KS> HK$10 per flight sector
Myanmar Airways US$1.25 per flight sector
Air New Zealand US$3.10 per flight coupon
Malaysian Airlines US$1.25 per flight sector
Air Canada C$3 per one way
China Airlines <2610.TW> US$2.50 per flight sector
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday October 3, 8:29 PM
Thai Indus Min In Talks With Premier Oil To Cut Gas Price BANGKOK (Dow Jones)--Thailand's
Industry Ministry Wednesday asked British oil and gas producer Premier Oil PCL
(U.PMO), the operator of Myanmar's Yetagun gas field, to reduce the price of
natural gas and delay delivery of gas to PTT PCL, formerly the Petroleum
Authority of Thailand.
The postponement of the gas offtake is due to a delay in the start of the
additional phase of a power plant owned by Ratchaburi Electricity Generating
Holding PCL (H.REG), which purchases gas from PTT.
The Industry Ministry's request aims to reduce electricity prices, which
have risen following the weakening of the local currency and an increase in the
price of gas, which is used by the government to calculate electricity prices.
"We asked Premier Oil to revise the conditions of the Daily Contract
Quantity, or DCQ, and gas price in an effort to reduce the burden from rising
electricity prices," Minister of Industry Suriya Jungrungreangkit told reporters
Wednesday after the meeting with Premier Oil's executives.
Premier Oil, which holds a 26.7% stake in the Yetagun gas field, will
negotiate with its partners and present a revised contract to the industry
minister by Friday, Suriya said.
Partners in the Yetagun gas field include Petronas Carigali Myanmar
Incorporated, holding a 30% stake; Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise, 15%; Nippon
Oil Exploration, 14.2%; and PTTEP International Ltd., 14.2%.
"The initial negotiations with Premier Oil were going well. The company is
willing to help Thailand solve the problem (of rising electricity prices)," said
Suriya.
Based on the daily contract quantity, the operators of the Yetagun gas
field are obliged to supply 200 million standard cubic feet a day, or mmscf/d,
in 2001. The amount will be brought up to 260 mmscf/d in October 2002 and to 400
mmscf/d in April 2004, Suriya said.
In 2001, Thailand has so far consumed about 130 mmscf/d of the 200 mmscf/d
specified in the contract. The price of gas stands at 164 baht ($1=THB44.671)
per million British thermal unit, or BTU, he added.
"We (Premier Oil) will talk with our partners to find solutions to lower
gas prices and modify the agreement for additional gas supply," Premier Oil's
advisor to Chief Executive Officer Peter Cockcroft said.
According to Suriya, the Industry Ministry also reached an initial
agreement with Unocal Corp. (UCL) to cut the price of gas from its fields in the
Gulf of Thailand. More details will be revealed soon, he added.
However, talks to adjust the gas price formula as well as to reduce the
price of gas in Myanmar's Yadana gas field are underway, Suriya added.
An industry source said Unocal Thailand agreed to lower the prices of gas
from its fields in the Gulf of Thailand, with a total reduction value of THB700
million for the period of July 2001 to September 2002.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Thursday, 4 October, 2001, 05:35
GMT 06:35 UK
Burma confiscates WTC videos Reports from Burma say that the authorities have confiscated pirated videos
of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.
The country's state-run media have run a commentary accusing what they called unscrupulous businessmen of exploiting the tragedy by copying the scenes illegally from satellite television and selling them on at exorbitant prices. Correspondents say that public interest in the attacks is unlikely to have
been quenched by the state media's cursory coverage of events; footage of the
attacks has not been shown since the day they took place and the official press
has made only passing mention of the strikes.
The military government delayed for several days releasing a letter of
condolence from military leader General Than Shwe to US President George Bush.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Thursday, 4 October, 2001, 12:09
GMT 13:09 UK
Aids wake-up call for Asia By BBC science reporter Julian Siddle The United Nations' Aids programme, UNAIDS, says there is potential for a
rapid spread of the disease across Asia.
In a report, it says statistics showing rates of infection of less than 1%
are misleading. It warns that as the incidence of HIV, the virus that can lead
to Aids, in high-risk groups increases, the classic pattern is for the virus to
spread to the wider population.
But UNAIDS commends Thailand for reducing new infections by 80% through
public awareness campaigns.
The report comes on the eve of the 6th International Conference on Aids in
Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP), being held in Melbourne, Australia.
Failures
It says rates of HIV infection amongst Chinese prostitutes have increased
from near zero to 90% in just four years.
Nearly half of all Nepal's intravenous drug users are now HIV-positive, and
in Indonesia, infection rates amongst blood donors saw a 10-fold increase
between 1998 and 2000.
The report says statistics from many Asian countries showing HIV affecting
less than 1% of the population are misleading, as the epidemic is only just
beginning.
It says HIV infection is still mainly confined to high risk groups, such as
sex workers and their clients, homosexual and bisexual men, and injecting drug
users. The classic pattern is for HIV to spread from these groups to the general
population.
Successes
However the report does offer some hope. Thailand, where one person in 60
has HIV, has managed to reduce the occurrence of new HIV infections by nearly
80%.
It has introduced a widespread public awareness campaign, regular tests of
sex workers for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, and a national
programme to promote condom use.
This method is being held up as a model for other Asian countries, and has
already been adopted by Cambodia with some success.
However, the report's authors stress there is no room for complacency.
They say, if Aids is to be defeated in Asia, governments and agencies need
to work towards breaking down the cultural and religious taboos surrounding the
discussion of sexual practices and condom use.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Star
Thursday, October 4, 2001
Help for freed Malaysians in Myanmar KUALA LUMPUR: Five Umno Youth leaders will leave here for Myanmar next week
to bring home six Malay-sians who were freed recently from a Yangon jail for
illegal entry into the country.
Headed by its international affairs bureau chairman Dr Shamsul Anwar
Sulaiman, the team will leave on Tues-day and hopes to bring them back to
Malaysia within two days.
Dr Shamsul Anwar said the six, who had gone to Myanmar with the intention
of passing through the country on their way to India for missionary work, had
been caught without valid travelling documents.
They were identified as Mohammad Amin Salleh and Syed Sultan Sinda (from
Penang), Mohamed Norhisham Ismail and Mohd Fadli Nordin (Kelan-tan), Azhar Alias
(Kuala Lumpur) and Abdul Ghani Hamid (Kedah).
Dr Shamsul Anwar said the six, part of a missionary group from Malaysia,
had no links with any blacklisted gr-oups, such as the KMM or the Taliban.
He said they were detained two years ago and were released only about two
months ago.
Umno Youth has raised about RM10,000 to help the six return as they could
not afford to pay for the trip on their own.
Meanwhile, the movement has collected about RM237,000 as well as donations
of clothes from the public to help Afghan refugees in the wake of the oncoming
cold weather and the fasting month of Ramadhan.
Umno Youth vice-chief Datuk Abdul Aziz Sheikh Fadzir said the movement
would open the charity fund for six months to collect more money as well as
clothes, food, medicine and other essential items for the Afghan refu-gees.
“I hope the public will put aside political ideology, creed, status or
religion and support our efforts on humanitarian grounds,” he told reporters at
the launch of the fund at the Central market here yesterday.
The movement’s 16,000 branches will conduct house visits besides setting up
counters at shopping complexes, recreational sites and public places for the
purpose, he said.
“We expect to deliver the first shipment of clothes, medicine and aid at
the beginning of the fasting month,’’ he added.
Abdul Aziz said Umno Youth was also considering sending volunteers to the
Afghanistan-Pakistan border to help out in the refugee camps.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Free Realtime
U. Virginia examines investments in Unocal due to Burma controversy By Justin Bernick & Ben Sellers CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Oct 03, 2001 (Cavalier Daily, U-WIRE via COMTEX)
--Unocal, a large energy resource development company now in the middle of a hot
University of Virginia debate regarding its business in Burma, continues to deny
any alleged misconduct in its dealings with the military-led nation.
The California-based company absolutely has not engaged in any form of
misconduct, Unocal spokesman Barry Lane said.
Burma, a small country in Southeast Asia wedged between Bangladesh and
Thailand, has been the recent subject of intense international and local
controversy. The nation's government, which can be categorized as a repressive
"military regime" with a poor humanitarian record, overturned democratic
elections in 1990, according to the CIA.
Although Unocal has not denied the Burmese government is repressive, the
company itself has "totally adhered to Western labor standards," Lane
said.
Smaller than Texas, Burma relies on natural gas as one of its chief
resources. The country began developing its resource, discovered in the early
1990s, with the formation of the Moattama Gas Transportation Company.
University of Virginia's role
The University currently owns about $1.5 million worth -- or roughly 0.02
percent -- of Unocal stock, said Alice Handy, president of the University of
Virginia Investment Management Company.
The University has "external managers to make the decisions on what
companies to invest in," she said, and "right now we have stock in a U.S.
company that just happens to be involved in Burma."
Unocal now is valued at more than $8.1 billion, Lane said, which is
equivalent to "254 million shares at approximately $32 and change."
Unocal, in turn, owns 28.4 percent of the $1 billion Moattama Gas
Transportation Company. Unocal is one of four investors in the Moattama Gas
Transportation Company, which include companies from several nations.
A French oil and gas company TotalFinaElf S.A. is the "project builder and
operator," with a 31.24 percent interest. Thailand's PTT Exploration &
Production Public Co. Ltd., with 25.5 percent interest, and the Burmese
state-owned Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise, with 15 percent interest, are the
other project investors.
The controversy
In 1996 the Moattama Gas Transportation Company began construction on the
Yadana pipeline project in Burma. The pipeline currently is used to carry
natural gas from the Yadana gas field, located 43 miles offshore, to Thailand to
fuel a
major power station operated by the Thai government. The project involved the placement of 412 kilometers of pipeline, 39 miles
of which cross the Burmese mainland. Various international contractors managed
the pipeline's construction, and 74 Burmese college graduates operate the Yadana
project's operations.
According to Unocal, the project has contributed to "modernization and
social change" in the region. Unocal and its partners have been a source of
"socioeconomic aid and programs for the Burmese citizens" in the form of
hospitals and infrastructure improvements, Lane said.
The other side of the issue
Nationwide objection to the Yadana pipeline project in Burma centers on the
human rights atrocities committed by the country's ruling military dictatorship,
the State Peace and Development Council.
According to Ka Hsa Wa, director and cofounder of EarthRights
International, a human rights and environmental protection organization,
military violations include forced slavery, rapes and murders.
The Burmese state-owned Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise receives $150 to
$400 million per year from the pipeline project, half of which is used to fund
the Burmese army, Wa said.
The army is responsible for relocating several villages, including the
village of Mi Chaung Laung, and causing thousands of Burmese people to flee the
country, said Katie Redford, co-director of EarthRights and a 1995 graduate of
the University Law School.
"Hundreds of people who have fled Burma have testified" to the atrocities,
she said.
Unocal, on the other hand, said the idea that villages were relocated is a
"common misperception."
Wa said the sentiment of the Burmese people in the pipeline area regarding
Unocal is that "if the white people [leave], the military will [leave]."
Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the Burmese National League of Democracy, who
led her opposition party to win 82 percent of the Parliament in the nullified
1990 election, has spoken out in support of sanctions on trade with Burma,
said
Jeremy Woodram, director of the Washington, D.C., branch of the Free Burma Coalition. The Coalition is a group working to nurture grass-roots support for freedom
and democracy in Burma. The U.S. State Department, the Department of Labor and
the U.N. Human Rights Commission all have condemned the military regime, Woodram
said.
In 1997 former President Bill Clinton imposed sanctions against Burma for
its human rights violations, an act that compelled many American businesses to
leave Burma. President Bush also has expressed his support for sanctions against
Burma.
The campaign, especially on college campuses, "has had a very strong effect
inside Burma," Woodram said. "These types of actions at universities do have
concrete and real effects."
The verdict
In 1997 a U.S. Federal District court agreed to hear EarthRights
International's claims against Unocal in Doe v. Unocal. After three years the
court granted Unocal's motion for summary judgment and dismissed the case.
Although the court agreed "Unocal knew that forced labor was being
utilized," it said because "there are no facts suggesting that Unocal sought to
employ forced or slave labor," there was insufficient evidence to establish
liability under international law.
The ruling currently is in appeal.
At the University the Board of Visitors announced Tuesday on its October
meeting agenda its decision to hear concerns related to a unanimous Student
Council resolution regarding the divestment of University assets in Burma.
Council will present its position regarding Unocal investments to the Board
of Visitors Oct. 19.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - October 04,
2001.
TACHILEK BRIDGE Surakiart, Khin Nyunt meet again Construction plans, site to be inspected Sa-nguan Khumrungroj Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai holds talks with Burmese junta first
secretary Khin Nyunt on Sunday on a new bridge linking the countries.
Ministry spokesman Rathakit Manathat said the pair would meet in the
Burmese border town of Tachilek to talk about preliminary plans for
construction, and inspect the site.
The bridge would link Tachilek and Mae Sai trade town in Chiang Rai, easing
traffic problems on the present bridge which is old and narrow.
Mr Rathakit said the bridge would also foster ties and promote business and
trade relations. It would take two years to build.
Sunday's meeting will be the second between the pair in the past two
months. Mr Surakiart joined Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra for talks with
Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt in September in Bangkok.
It comes on the eve of a ministerial meeting of Asean countries and China
in Chiang Rai, to look at development efforts in the Mekong sub-region.
Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt will not join the regional gathering but will be
represented by Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - October 04,
2001.
Rangoon agrees to set up camps for
rejected workers
Four shelters to take deported labourers
Penchan Charoensutthipan
Burma will set up four camps to accommodate returning villagers if their
work permits are not renewed after six-months of employment in Thailand.
Irawat Chanprasert, permanent secretary for labour, said Rangoon had agreed
to prepare shelters for deported immigrant Burmese workers.
Thailand is registering immigrant workers, mostly from Burma, Laos and
Cambodia. They will be given work permits lasting six months and then be
required to have a health check-up. If there are no problems their permits will
be renewed. If not, they will be deported. Mr Irawat said Burmese being deported
will first be sent to camps at Mae Sai, Mae Sot, Ranong and Kanchanaburi.
Pusak Thammasarn, deputy chief of the Employment Department, said the
number of registered immigrants reached 150,000 on Oct 1 and almost 300 million
baht in registration fees had been collected.
About 120,000 were Burmese and the rest Lao and Cambodian.
Sources said about 20,000 had worked as maids in Bangkok. Their employers
included businessmen, senior government officials and cabinet ministers.
Many fake banknotes were handed over during the registration process,
Saksakol Jindasawat, director of the immigrant worker registration centre,
said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- South China Morning Post
Thursday, October 4, 2001 THAILAND - Permit aimed at ending abuse of illegal immigrant workers WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok Thailand is finally trying to bring its huge illegal workforce up from the
underground - but human rights workers fear the measures will do little to
benefit lowly labourers.
Thousands of workers, mostly from Myanmar, but also from Cambodia and Laos,
have been rushing to obtain the first proper national work permits for manual
labourers offered by Thailand.
The promise is that instead of living a cat-and-mouse existence evading the
authorities, being forced to accept often dire working conditions and running
the risk of having hard-earning income pocketed by unscrupulous officials, these
workers can live close to a normal life as "guest workers".
Rough estimates suggest Thailand - bordered by poorer nations - is home to
at least a million illegal workers. Some say the number is higher.
They do the low-paid, often dirty jobs like cleaning fish, building cheap
homes and picking fruit, tasks Thais will not do - at least not for rock-bottom
wages.
These cheap, willing and vulnerable workers are found everywhere in
Thailand, replacing in many middle-class homes the servants of old.
They also fill out the low-class brothels and dominate the Bangkok pavement
begging trade.
"We want to clean up the whole business," Labour Minister Dej Boonlong
said. "It's good for our foreign guests, it's good for us. We recognise that
these workers help our economy so they should be rewarded."
By forcing employers to register foreign workers and pay them a minimum
wage there is less risk that Thais will be undercut by underground workers and
less risk of foreigners engaging in crime or being abused, Thai officials claim.
Ultimately, Mr Dej expects perhaps 700,000 to sign on for a renewable
six-month permit costing 3,350 baht (HK$585).
The permit is supposed to give the holder access to local hospitals and,
theoretically, the same labour rights as Thai workers. Yet what sounds good in
theory could merely turn out to be a mechanism for merely "regularising the
abuses", according to one foreign human rights worker.
"If there is no will to enforce minimum standards the net result will
simply be to make it easier to kick the workers out when they are no longer
wanted," she claimed.
There are fears that employers, who generally pay the workers half or less
than the prevailing minimum wage, will suddenly double or triple wages by
charging more for food, accommodation, and now, for the permit itself.
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