Passport Unpopular with Burmese Migrants

MAE SOT—“I’m so happy that my days of worrying about the police are over. I can now travel freely around Thailand without worrying about being extorted or arrested,” said Ko Thaw Dar, a Burmese migrant worker in Bangkok. 

When he was 10 years old, Ko Thaw Dar and his family fled from the hardships of Burma to try to make a living in Thailand. For years, he lived in fear of the Thai police, often having to pay bribes or risk being thrown in a detention centre or worse, forcibly repatriated to Burma.

Burmese illegal migrant workers sit in a prison cell at a Thai police station. (Photo: Reuters)

Seventeen years later, Ko Thaw Dar is a chef at a restaurant in Bangkok and is the proud owner of a short-term Burmese passport.

Eager to escape the uncertainty of illegal migrant life, Ko Thaw Dar jumped at the opportunity when his employer offered to help him by taking him to the Thai-Burmese border to apply for nationality verification papers.

For some, Ko Thaw Dar’s case could be seen to be a success story. He didn’t pay one baht more than he should have and was safely escorted to and from the border by his employer. However, activists argue that the scheme that offers migrant workers the chance to work legally and travel in Thailand is far from perfect.

Ko Thaw Dar is in the minority, one of just 2,000 out of an estimated 2 million Burmese migrants in Thailand, who, according to Thai Labor Minister Phitoon Kaewthong, have registered at a Nationality Verification Centre and obtained short-term (usually one year) passports.

Labor activists blame the low turnout on a lack of public relations and information available to migrants. They say the workers don’t know about the scheme and, for those who have heard of it, the process is shrouded in rumors.

This is certainly true in Mae Sot where most factory owners haven’t uttered a word about the verification process to their Burmese employees.

“The salaries are so low in Mae Sot and the conditions so bad that employers fear the liberty the workers will have if they obtain travel passports,” explained Ko Moe Swe, a representative of the Yaung Chi Oo Workers Association.

“If the workers verify their nationality then they can travel freely in Thailand. The factory owners know they would leave their 50 baht (US $1.50) per day jobs in Mae Sot to go to other areas like Bangkok where they can make 300 baht ($9) per day,” he said.

For most migrant workers working in the Mae Sot area, their salaries are already so low they can’t afford to apply for verification.  And the motivation to apply is dampened by stories of corrupt brokers and officials.

One Burmese factory worker in Mae Sot who spoke to The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity expressed her frustration.

She said that she and her fellow workers were originally hopeful when they heard that four Burmese officials and two Thai immigration officers had joined forces and visited the knitting factory where she worked to pressure the owner to tell the workers to apply.

The employer announced to the Burmese workers in the factory that they had each been offered a cheap price of 5,000 baht ($150) and that if they wanted to apply for short-term passports, now was a good time.

Most of the workers started the verification process, but 10 days later the employer announced that the fee had risen to 7,500 baht ($225).

“How can they not know what the price is?” the Burmese employee said with a sigh. “I really don’t understand how the price can increase like that and what they will do with the extra money. I don’t know how suspicious this behavior really is, but they must make the price official and transparent.”

Three broker companies are registered in Thailand to “help” migrant workers complete their forms and transport the workers to the verification centers, which are dotted along the border with Burma. 

Labor rights organizations argue that the prices they charge are too high for low-paid migrant workers and are deterring people from applying.

Illegal brokers are also active; reports have surfaced of applicants paying bogus brokers more than 10,000 baht ($300) for a “speedy” process, never to see the broker again.

Sawit Keawan, the general secretary of Thailand’s State Enterprise Workers Relations Confederation, believes the scheme was built with good intentions, but that all parties involved need to accept their faults before it can be a success.