Burmese migrant workers in the aftermath of the tsunami

Phone reports from TAG (Tsunami Action Group) in the South of Thailand. TAG is a group of organisations concerned for the welfare of Burmese migrant workers affected by the tsunami. The group is coordinated by HREIB and MAP Foundation.

January 11th 2005
For the Burmese migrants in the South of Thailand it is as if every day there is another aftershock from the tsunami. Each day they are subjected to another bout of fear and panic, another race against the advancing danger. Only these days, it is not a huge wave advancing on them, but border soldiers, police or immigration. As with everyone else who survived the tsunami, they are dealing with their own nightmares, haunted by the images of the bodies of their dead friends who they did not dare to go and identify for fear of being arrested. Now they dare not go to the food distribution points. There is aid for migrants, the United Nations has funds for affected migrant workers, Burmese communities around the world have made donations, but there is no facilitated way of getting that assistance to the migrant communities. Migrants who have organised themselves into outreach teams are themselves facing harassment and arrest and yet they are the only people who speak the same language, the only people who the other migrants will trust, the only people who could find the migrants to ensure they had food and shelter. But they are not allowed to do that. So the migrants have to live in hiding, continually on the move. If they are scavenging for pieces of broken down homes to make shelter and for food, it is because, having already survived a military dictatorship and a tsunami, they must be able to survive this, one more assault on their right to exist. The authorities say they will only arrest those migrants who do not have work permits. Remember the courageous Thai volunteers sorting through the passports of the tourists? How many people managed to hold onto their ID in the tsunami? How many of the migrants being held in the Immigration Detention Centre had spent precious time and money registering for a temporary ID card last July and then again for a work permit in August, but lost them to the sea. The employment offices say they will re-issue work permits to migrants who can get to their office and give the correct details of their previous registration. But how will the migrants know that? And if they do know it, how can they get to the employment office without being arrested on the way? All efforts to normalise the situation for the migrants are being hampered by the insistence on deporting them back to Burma. If that would stop, the employment office could set up some system to re-issue work permits to migrants and employment permits to employers, the NGOs could ensure the migrants had access to food, shelter and health care, the migrant groups could support their community to heal and the re-building of the affected provinces of the South could commence.

January 12th
The employment offices have made it easier for migrants to re-register, by requiring as few details as possible for the migrants to be able to prove that they had a work permit. The outreach teams set out in the morning to meet migrant workers and get these details and take them back to the employment office. The system is working well and new cards are being issued to migrant workers. It will be a massive task. There used to be 30,000 migrant workers in the affected provinces but according to government officials there are only 3,000 migrants left now and 1,900 have been "assisted" home by the authorities.

In the afternoon, news came through that three staff from World Vision had been "arrested". The Burmese doctor and two Burmese staff, one of them a woman, were being held in a cage in direct sunlight. It appears that the local employers were angry with them for assisting women and children affected and traumatised by the Tsunami to return to Burma. They were harassed and humiliated in the cage for seven hours before being taken to a police station. Other staff of World Vision who had gone to find and support their colleagues were later beaten up by a gang. They were lucky that someone came along and they could escape with minor injuries, because it was clear that the intentions of the gang were otherwise. Even so, they are now hospitalised. According to the OCHA Flash Appeal , IOM, UNICEF and UNFPA are partnering World Vision, and the "Thailand Ministry of Social Welfare" to support 500 families for voluntary return and reintegration to Myanmar. It will be very difficult to implement this program if the field officers who are facilitating the return of migrants are arrested, harassed, beaten and not protected by the authorities from the influence of the employers.

If migrant workers want to stay and work, they are liable to arrest and deportation by the immigration. If they want to go home to recuperate, they are liable to coercion and violence by the employers to make them stay. Each day brings a fresh aftershock.

Contact details:
tagmigrants@yahoo.com
MAP Foundation 66 53 811202