Migrants Fleeing Myanmar Walk Tough Road Across the Border

Mayu Saini
·8 min read

International Migrants Day was Dec. 18. But many are left asking, “What does it change for workers whose passports have been confiscated by factory owners?” Or those that are receiving less than half their wages due?

On Monday, as groups of migrants gathered at various locations around Thailand to mark the occasion, there was much to discuss, celebrate—and commiserate.

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Since Myanmar’s military coup in February 2021, nationals who fled the oppressive rule and illegally crossed the border into Thailand have become increasingly isolated due to a myriad of issues, and subjected to situations of hardship.

In the town of Samut Sakhon, near Bangkok, for instance, there was news on local media of 10 garment workers rescued by the Myanmar Humanitarian Action Center (MHAC) who had been locked in for months by the factory owner and not allowed to leave the premises. Samut Sakhon is a major production base for food processing, garments and textiles, auto parts and rubber products.

At the Sala bag sewing factory in Suphan Buri township, a little over 60 miles from the capital city, more than 300 Myanmar workers allegedly faced a situation with a factory owner for which they had to reach for help against harassment in September, according to discussions in the worker groups and labor rights organizations.

(This could not independently verified by Sourcing Journal, but was affirmed by a local migrant aid human rights company).

On the plus side, migrant workers did acknowledge that salaries in Thailand are almost double those in Myanmar, and that the social system does provide recognition and help in the form of support by migrant assistance centers across the country.

Workers spoke of a victory last week, in a case that came up in April, in Mae Sot, in which 58 workers were awarded 9.4 million baht (approximately $270,000) in compensation for back-pay retroactively for the last two years including overtime and severance from Mai Tai factory.

“We are waiting for the money to be paid. We just received the labor inspector order. Our lawyer has checked with the labor court, we found that the employer did not appeal the labor inspector order,” Raweeporn Dokmai, field coordinator, Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF) told Sourcing Journal.

Referring to the case, she said: “Workers in Mai Tai Factory have generally been subjected to poor working conditions lower than the law, namely only one-day off a month without pay; long work hours (7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.); low wages and illegal wage deductions.”

“When some of the workers filed a complaint with us in April, it was because the employer threatened to deduct 2,000 baht ($57.21) from their salaries, claiming their work was of poor quality and that there was resistance to overtime work. At the same time, their documents were retained by their employer whilst the deadline to complete their registration was coming close,” she said. 

In consultation with the workers, HRDF helped them to negotiate with their employer in May, using their bargaining rights under the Labour Relations Act, rather than reporting the case to the police for document seizure.

“If the employer used the ploy of withholding the documents beyond the deadline, all of the workers would become undocumented. On the negotiation table witnessed by a representative of the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare (DLPW), the employer eventually returned the workers’ documents, but dismissed them one day after,” said Dokmai.

She said that the employer locked the main entrance from the outside, leaving the backdoor linked to the wasteland overgrown with grass as the only way to exit the factory, and had not verified the address of the worker’s as the factory address—making it impossible to extend their visas.

“HRDF’s staff, with agreement of the Migrant Workers Assistance Centre (MWAC), used their own address as the address for the 59 workers. They thus processed with their visa extensions.”

At the time, HRDF staff was stalked by the employer and received intimidating phone calls, she said.

Dokmai added that at this stage the workers were able to sustain their valid visa and work permits. “The MWAC also helped to match them with available jobs in another factory. HRDF continues to help the workers on wage theft case and to be screened as forced labor,” she explained.

Myanmar is pushing its migrants abroad to go undocumented, workers also said—with two recent rulings that led to a huge financial burden for migrant workers, in terms of both tax and remittances.

The pronouncement by Myanmar’s junta State Administration Council (SAC) in September ruled that migrants must remit 25 percent of their earnings back to the country.

“These are to be sent through official channels,” a worker emphasized, asking not to be named, “which means we lost 25 to 40 percent of the value of the money at the exchange rate that has been set which is much lower than the other routes of informal money transfer. It also means much less money for us to spend on our own livelihood.”

The estimated volume of remittances was down to $1.9 billion in 2022, from $2.67 billion in 2020, before the coup, according to the World Bank.

The other part of the the new rule involves taxation on migrant worker wages that the Myanmar junta has introduced—the tax is progressive, and migrant workers earning minimum wages will have to pay 10 percent on their earnings.

If they don’t pay, their passports will not get renewed.

“That means, they have to remit 25 percent as a part of the remittance requirement, and then 10 percent for tax,” a worker explained. In which case, “it simply forces us to make the choice to remain undocumented.”

In Thailand, migrant labor from Myanmar account for nearly 80 percent of the total migrants, followed by Cambodia and Laos.

“The garment and textile sector in Thailand relies heavily on migrant workers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Lao People’s Democratic Republic,” Aleksandra Lasota, Partnerships and Programme Coordinator of the Labour Mobility and Social Inclusion Unit at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Thailand, told Sourcing Journal.

“Research suggests that despite their prevalence in the manufacturing sector, migrant workers in this sector are often exposed to risks throughout their migration journey, especially during recruitment and employment. For example, migrant workers often face poor working conditions, including pay below the legal minimum wage and uncompensated overtime, as well as limited access to social and legal protection, and gender-based discrimination,” she said.

She pointed out that although Thailand was the first country in Asia to adopt the National Action Plan (NAP) on Business and Human Rights and that the royal ordinance in 2017 said that migrants should not pay a service fee to recruiters, many migrant workers remain unaware of their rights.

“Moreover, the law enforcement remains a challenge with over half of migrant workers interviewed by ILO in 2020 reporting they had made a payment to a recruitment agency or broker in Thailand despite it being prohibited by the Royal Ordinance,” she said.

The latest Global Estimates of Modern Slavery, published by the International Labour Organization, International Organization for Migration and Walk Free, revealed that last year, about 50 million people worldwide were living in modern slavery. Across Asia and the Pacific, 15 million people are reported to be victims of forced labor. The report showed that migrant workers are three times more likely to be the victims of forced labor.

While the official estimates of migrant workers in Thailand from Myanmar are approximately 2.3 million, the total numbers are estimated at almost double that.

“Due to the porous borders of Thailand, the often complicated, time-consuming and expensive MOU processes, and the limited functionality of the border employment scheme, many migrant workers enter Thailand irregularly,” they said

Anna Engblom, Chief Technical Adviser, ASEAN, which is a part of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) global efforts to promote fair migration, added, “Mae Sot is one of the hubs for apparel factories, and has an export processing zone with many factors producing for international brands and retailers. The ministry of labor has been running 10 migrant worker assessment centers throughout the country since 2016, that can help migrants with their work permits and visas etc. One of these centers is in Mae Sot. While migrants entering under the MOU scheme are allowed to change employers under certain conditions, in most cases, they are tied to the employer for the duration of their employment contract, typically two years.

“The problem for migrants is that many don’t want to go to government-initiated centers for fear of being deported,” she added.

She said that the ILO perspective was that no recruitment fees or related costs should be the responsibility of the workers. These costs include transport, medical check-ups, work permits and visa fees.

“One positive development is that the Thai government reduced the visa fees from 2,000 baht ($57.21) to 500 baht ($14.30) last month,” she observed.

A Thai official put it simply.

“When you look at South Asia, Thailand and Malaysia are the largest areas for migration, and are among the top 20 highest migration corridors in the world. We are doing our best to ensure safe and fair conditions. “

As global retailers and brands continue pulling out of production in Myanmar over the last few months— including Inditex, Primark, Marks & Spencer and H&M—one of the migrant workers in Mae Sot, who asked not to be named, said that, unfortunately, the bottom line was clear.

“We do need the jobs,” she said.