7 #Myanmar workers rescued from sugarcane farm in #Thailand

 

Thai and Myanmar officials have rescued seven Myanmar nationals who were tricked into working for nothing on a sugar-cane farm in a forest in Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand.

 According to the Myanmar Aid Alliance Committee (AAC) and Myanmar embassy officials, the seven were rescued Wednesday by Thai officials, including members of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), immigration and army.

Speaking to The Myanmar Times on Thursday, AAC member Ko Ye Min said “The workers were asked by a Myanmar labour broker to work at a sugar-cane factory in Thailand.

“But the broker had sold them as slaves. They had to work without pay, their cell phones were taken away and kept by the farm owner, and they were under constant guard to prevent them from escaping.”

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 The victims are all from Bago Region, five of them from Sat Su village in Waw township and two from Htan Tapin village in Taungoo township.

The victims managed to escape on foot from the farm and called the AAC for help.

According to the seven, the broker had threatened them by saying the girls would be sent to brothels and the men to work on fishing boats in Thailand.

The AAC reported the matter to the DSI, which, after consultations with Myanmar embassy officials, mounted a rescue operation and saved the seven from the forest, Ko Ye Min said.

“We [the AAC] and the embassy managed to send them home. All the victims are back in Myanmar,” Ko Ye Min confirmed on Friday.

Embassy officials said the broker took the victims to Thailand via an illegal route two months ago.

The officials told The Myanmar Times on Thursday that they had sent back all the workers to Myanmar and Thai officials will investigate and take action against the broker for human trafficking.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Thet Naung of the Myanmar Anti Human-Trafficking Police Squad said they had received news that the DSI had saved the workers. “But, we have not got the official version from the Thai side. We will speak to the workers when they get back home. We will take legal action after we have investigated and have all the information on the matter from the workers,” he said on Friday.

An official of Waw township administrative department said on Friday he had no knowledge of any human trafficking.

Source - mmtimes

400 #Myanmar migrants sacked without compensation

Over 400 sacked Myanmar migrants have filed a complaint at the Thai labour rights protection department for action to be taken against the Thai snack factory Taokaenoi from Ladlumkaew, Pathumthani township.

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 Most sacked workers are pink-card holders and some are working at the snack factory as MOU workers.
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 According to Thai based migrants rights group Aid Alliance Committee (AAC) and workers, the migrants had filed a complaint as they had been sacked without compensation.
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“Workers were stopped from working as there weren’t enough jobs but no suitable compensation was given,” AAC member Ko Ye Min told The Myanmar Times yesterday.
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He also said that all workers had to pay the factory official 2500 baht for hiring jobs and they also had to pay between 8500 baht and 11,000 baht to get work-permits, but the migrants had not been provided with any work-permit documents.
.“We have filed a case at the township labour rights protection department for workers to be given the fees taken by the factory officials and to be given suitable compensation for losing their jobs,” AAC member Ko Ye Min said.
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The dispute is scheduled to be examined on May 11 (today) at the Department of Labour Protection in Pathumthani, according to AAC and migrant workers.
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“Today, factory officials have asked us to sign if we are willing to return to work. They have also applied for work-permits for us. But, most of the workers have refused to sign. We can’t trust them anymore. They failed to provide us with work-permits although we were asked for around 100,000 baht,” Ko Zaw Hein, a migrant worker, told The Myanmar Times yesterday.
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He was employed by the snack factory four months ago and has not been provided with work-permit documents although he was asked to pay 8500 baht for work-permit fees and 2500 baht for employment as a factory worker.
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According to AAC and workers, most sacked workers are pink-card holders and some are working at the snack factory as MOU workers. There are about 500 Myanmar migrant workers at the factory who have been working there for over two years.

Workers also said that the factory used to retrench workers very often because factory officials and their brokers make a bigger income from migrants by firing old workers and hiring new ones, thus enabling them to charge hiring fees to the tune of 2500 baht and work-permit fees at 8500 baht.
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Myanmar embassy officials did not respond to The Myanmar Times yesterday when the paper attempted to get a comment on the issue.
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Source - MMTIMES