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The Nation -Chuan firm on repatriat



Reply-To: "TIN KYI" <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: The Nation -Chuan firm on repatriation of illegal Burmese

The Nation - Nov 10, 1999.
Headlines
Chuan firm on repatriation of illegal Burmese

PRIME Minister Chuan Leekpai yesterday refused to budge amid growing calls
from the private sector and factory owners along the Thai-Burmese border to
stop deporting Burmese working illegally in Thailand.

''They will be sent back the same way they came,'' Chuan said.

Factory owners who employ the Burmese have threatened mass protests if the
repatriation does not stop.

The premier, however, rejected the employers' claims that the Burmese are
essential for Thai industry, saying factory owners had long overlooked the
law by knowingly hiring illegal foreign workers.

Efforts by Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan to get the Burmese government
involved in the repatriation has failed because Rangoon refused to
cooperate, Chuan said.

Thailand last week started a massive roundup of illegal foreign workers from
Cambodia, Laos and Burma to repatriate them.

Mae Sot district in Tak province has become a focal point because it is one
of the main crossing points between Burma and Thailand and the area is home
to a number of factories that have for years exploited the cheap labour of
Burmese workers.

Businesses in Mae Sot alone employed about 100,000 illegal Burmese workers,
most working in garment and canning factories for salaries far below the
required minimum wages.

While acknowledging the rugged border enabled Burmese workers to cross back
to the Thai side almost at will, Chuan insisted authorities would continue
repatriations and see the laws enforced.

Burmese troops have threatened to shoot the returnees. In a couple incidents
when Thai authorities tried to ferry workers across river crossings, they
ended up pushing the rafts back to the Thai side to avoid possible bloodshed
and look elsewhere to take the workers across the border.

Burmese soldiers argued that some returnees may have been rebel soldiers and
members of various dissident groups trying to sneak back into the country,
Thai authority said.

However, the repatriation has proven to be like a merry-go-round as many
returned workers swim back to the Thai side shortly after they were put
ashore.

A number of Thai officials and lawmakers have reportedly urged the
government to go after the factory owners, saying they are the root cause of
the problem.

The president of Tak's chamber of commerce reportedly said 15 women who have
been deported were raped by Burmese soldiers shortly after they reached
their homeland and two drowned in the Moei River while trying to swim back.

Khachadpai Burusapatana, Secretary-General of the National Security Council,
however, said the matter was out of Thailand's hands as it occurred in
Burma.

Deputy national police chief Gen Sant Sarutanon, responsible for the
repatriation of illegal Burmese workers, said authorities employed
appropriate measures to repatriate the workers, insisting no force has been
used.

But the National Council of the Union of Burma, an exile group, called on
the United Nations, diplomats and non-governmental organisations to
investigate the accusations of ill-treatment immediately.

The group accused the military government of Burma of not only refusing
re-entry to these workers but of shooting at them and making them into
fugitives.

''Some are on the run in the jungles ... facing starvation. Some are
stranded on sand bars in the middle of the river ... thousands of Burmese
workers are facing grave danger,'' the group said in a statement.

''More than 10,000 of them have been repatriated since last week,'' Maj
Chanwut Watcharapuk, deputy chief of the immigration department, told a news
conference in Mae Sot yesterday.

But he added that about 60 per cent of the deported had returned, and not
because of threats from Burmese soldiers.

''Large numbers of them returned to Thailand because some employers had not
yet paid their salaries, so they came back to receive their pay,'' he said.

The repatriation of workers comes amid growing tension between Thailand and
Burma that started in October when five armed dissidents took over the
Burmese Embassy in Bangkok.

Burma responded by shutting the border with Thailand and cancelling fishing
concession held by Thai fishermen.

Before the economic crisis hit Thailand two years ago, the country hosted
about a million Burmese workers. Repatriations began late last year when
300,000 Burmese were sent home.


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