Burma

Abuse, Poverty and Migration: Investigating migrants' motivations to leave home in Burma

Date: 21/03/2011 - 13:28

International reporting of the large-scale migration of those leaving Burma in search of work abroad has highlighted the perils for migrants during travel and in host countries. However, there has been a lack of research about the root causes of this migration. Identifying the root causes of migration has important implications for the assistance and protection of these migrants.

Thailand: Rights Groups Call for Improved Migrant Rights

Date: 17/02/2011 - 10:12

A group of civil society organizations, which included Thai and Burmese organizations, sent an open letter to the Thai Ministry of Labor calling for safer and better working conditions for migrant workers in Thailand—most of whom are Burmese—who are often mistreated and exploited by local authorities and their employers.

Thailand: Migrant workers have the right to workers' compensation

Date: 19/10/2010 - 08:34

At least 2 million migrants from Burma work in low-skilled, dirty and dangerous jobs in Thailand from which they frequently incur accidents and disease. Since 2001, Thailand has discriminated against migrant work accident victims from Burma by denying them access to the Workmen’s Compensation Fund (WCF), even though all workers regardless of national origin are legally eligible for access to this fund.

Thailand toughens migrant measures

Date: 18/06/2010 - 14:18

THAILAND has announced a series of measures designed to target migrant workers who have failed to comply with a controversial registration process implemented earlier this year – a group that includes about 43,000 Cambodians, according to statistics provided by a Bangkok-based human rights organisation on Thursday.

Thailand: Rights groups protest deportation of Burmese migrants

Date: 17/02/2010 - 10:29

Over 2 million migrants have been threatened by the Royal Thai Government (RTG) with deportation after 28th Feb. 2010 if they fail to enter a nationality verification process (NV). Over 80% of these migrants are from Burma and face ethnic and political conflict as well as continuing economic deterioration in their homeland, which is controlled by a military government.

Burmese migrant workers fear new Thai work permit rules

Date: 22/01/2010 - 14:12

Burmese migrant workers in Thailand fear new immigration and work permit procedures will make life harder for them and their families back home. Thai authorities say the new procedures will curb illegal migration but rights activists say the measures threaten the migrants' security.

The Thai cabinet has recently ordered migrant workers to verify their nationality to qualify for work permits.

The new guidelines cover over one million legal Burmese migrant workers in Thailand, as well as more than 200,000 workers from Laos and Cambodia.

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