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Myanmar ready to shoot workers depo
- Subject: Myanmar ready to shoot workers depo
- From: IntelAsia@xxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1999 22:20:00
Subject: Myanmar ready to shoot workers deported from Thailand
Myanmar ready to shoot workers deported from Thailand
.c Kyodo News Service
BANGKOK, Nov. 13 (Kyodo) - By: Varunee Torsricharoen Some border authorities
in Myanmar have threatened to shoot Myanmar workers being deported to Myanmar
from Thailand, reports reaching Bangkok on Saturday say.
The threats are exacerbating an already intractable problem that has also
left many deported Myanmar workers starving in the jungles along the
Thai-Myanmar border as they try to avoid the authorities in their homeland as
well as those in Thailand.
According to sources along the border, Myanmar is refusing to recognize the
illegal immigrants being sent home from Thailand as citizens, has closed many
border crossing points, and has threatened in other cases to throw migrants
into jail for up to nine years for entering Myanmar ''illegally.''
Thailand is trying to repatriate as many as one million people from Myanmar,
Laos, Cambodia and some other countries who had been working illegally in
Thailand.
For years, the Thai government turned a blind eye as hundreds of thousands of
people fled repressive governments and economic hardship at home,
particularly in Myanmar, to seek freedom and work in Thailand.
But with the economic meltdown that began in July 1997 having thrown at least
1.4 million Thais out of work, the government decided to deport all illegal
workers who failed to get work permits by Nov. 3.
The process has, however, turned exceedingly ugly.
Already several hundred illegal workers from Myanmar, mostly members of the
Shan ethnic minority, have sneaked back into Thailand in Mae Hong Son
Province after being deported by Thai authorities and then detained in their
homeland as ''stateless'' immigrants there.
Now, according to Sai Myint, a 27-year-old Shan, he and some 40 other Shan
workers were jailed by the Myanmar authorities soon after they were trucked
into Myanmar Nov. 9.
''They claimed we were illegal immigrants despite the fact that we are
Myanmarese, so we waited until they were inattentive and we stole away from
the jail,'' he said.
In a report from the province in Thailand's far north, Sai Myint was quoted
as saying he and the others are now hiding in the jungle because they fear
arrest in Thailand as well as at home.
''We are hiding, but we are also starving, especially the children,'' he
said, adding at least one member of his group has already died after the
initial 3-kilometer walk into Myanmar.
And the situation is unlikely to improve soon.
Myanmar shut border points after five exiled students took over the Myanmar
Embassy in Bangkok in early October and held hostages there for 25 hours. The
ruling junta in Yangon took the action because they felt Thailand was too
lenient with the student exiles.
Adding to the overall problem, as of the Nov. 3 deadline for obtaining work
permits, only about 106,000 of the estimated one million unskilled workers
from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar in Thailand were given permission to remain
and take jobs. The rest are to be repatriated.
Even those ''lucky'' enough to get work permits can take jobs only in one of
37 provinces and must work in only 18 business sectors, including
agriculture, fisheries, construction and mining.
And even those work permits will expire Aug. 5 next year.
Illegal workers are widely sought by Thai businesses seeking to exploit their
low wage rates, but the many Thais who are now unemployed claim the migrants
take jobs away from them and that their willingness to work for extremely low
wages drives down wages for Thai workers as well.
Thailand's minimum wage for unskilled labor ranges from 130 to 162 baht daily
(about 3.5 to 4.3 dollars), but illegal workers will work for only one-third
that amount.
Thai labor law requires all workers, illegal or not, to be paid minimum wage,
but the threat of deportation meant many illegal workers could be easily
intimidated into accepting wages far below the minimum.
AP-NY-11-13-99 0416EST