“One of the things I’ve been passionate about and worked on and have done research about is the plight of migrant workers who have come to Thailand from Myanmar, and also from Cambodia, from Laos, and increasingly now from Vietnam,” says Phil Robertson.
Robertson, the longtime former Deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch and currently the Director at Asia Human Rights and Labor Advocates sat down to talk with Insight Myanmar for their podcast. He discusses how Burmese migrants fleeing to Thailand to escape the conflict have been faring.
A country with a rapidly aging population, Thailand has long relied on migrant labour to work in trades that locals avoid; Robertson estimates that of the nearly 5 million migrants in Thailand, over 2 million are from Myanmar, a number expected to rise sharply due to the junta’s recent conscription laws.
Although Thai law requires fair pay and safe working conditions for migrants, the reality is far from that. “It is a system that exists in law and regulations,” he says. “But the real idea is that there is impunity to violate the rights of and abuse migrant workers, and that is what we consistently see.” Robertson cites an incident where a Burmese migrant worker was assaulted in the presence of an inspector from the Ministry of Labor, highlighting the stark lack of effective support for migrant workers. “It is quite clear that the Ministry of Labor in Thailand systematically fails to effectively enforce just about any of the major labor laws,” he says. “The law may exist somewhere, but the reality is what the boss says and what the foreman says and what the police outside the gate say.”
The Thai Labor Relations Act bans foreign workers from participating in labor unions, a measure that the International Labor Organization has consistently criticized, though they can advocate for them. However, Robertson paints a dim overall picture of workers’ rights in Thailand. Thai labor unions are pretty toothless, often too weak to effectively advocate for the workers’ rights of Thai nationals., let alone migrant workers. and in some cases they are completely powerless. So even that avenue for organizing and the redress of grievances is closed for Burmese workers. However, Robertson notes that Thai industries producing goods for export have faced increasing scrutiny from Western countries, which are now taking greater care to limit imports produced under sub-optimal working conditions. While there has been some progress in the United States, Robertson advocates for more substantial attention to these issues within EU states.
“People in the European Union need to be demanding that the European Union lay down some clear markers that there has to be labor law reform and human rights reforms in Thailand if they expect to do business. It’s not possible to look the other way anymore.”
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