Showing posts with label Documents. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Documents. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

#Cambodia - As region cracks down on migrants, agencies provide costly, illegal passport service.


Amid crackdowns on undocumented migrants in Malaysia and Thailand, demand for passports among Cambodian migrants has seen large spikes in recent weeks, with many making the costly journey to Phnom Penh to get their paperwork in order. 

However, several Cambodia-based travel agencies told The Post that they could, defying official policies, make passports for Cambodian citizens abroad – if the citizens had the wherewithal to pay around $600, or six times the official amount.
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Though the agents stopped short of using the word “bribe” to describe their payments to Passport Department officials, by taking advantage of the “unofficial process”, the agencies fill in for a service that advocates say should be readily available at Cambodian embassies overseas – with one official insisting that it technically is, for workers and students.

But apparent confusion over that policy, along with what some have characterised as a lack of political will, leaves often low-paid migrant workers in the unenviable position of having to choose between paying to return home, or paying exorbitant fees from abroad to obtain the essential documents.

One travel agency employee, speaking on conditions of anonymity, said that while her agency took $115 to $235 to facilitate normal and express passports, respectively, for customers inside Cambodia. Her agency asks $590 from customers abroad, with $570 going to the Passport Department directly. 

Officially, passports cannot be made from abroad, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The documents cost $100 for a normal passport and $200 for a one-day expedited passport at the department’s offices in Phnom Penh.

However, the travel agency employee said migrants could send a photo of themselves, their old passport, a copy of an ID card, their family book and a copy of the passport of another Cambodian guarantor who confirms the person is abroad.

“The Messenger brings all of those documents to the Passport Department, then leaves the documents with the police there. The police process everything,” she said. 

And if, for example, the person did not have the family book, “we can still do it”, she said.
As those applying from abroad cannot give their thumbprints, the department “may reload it from the previous thumbprint of the passport owner when they made the old passport”, the employee added.

Thus, the new passport would have the same information as the old one, except for the updated photo.

She gave the example of a student in Canada who was unable to return. “His old passport nearly expired. He had an exam and couldn’t come home – so we did it for him,” she said.
The deputy director of the Passport Department, Sok Sophorn, denied the claims. “I don’t know about this service … I don’t know how they do it,” he said. 

Sophorn maintained that there was one possibility of getting a new passport when abroad, namely going to the embassy, which would send a diplomatic note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which in turn would submit a request to the Interior Ministry to issue a new passport.
This was only applicable, he said, for “migrant workers or students if they are busy and cannot go back”, and only the older five-year version of the passport could be issued. “For the new [10-year] one, we need the person to come back, as we need their finger prints.” 

Foreign Ministry spokesman Chum Sounry said he had never heard of this procedure. “For the moment, Cambodians have to go back [to Cambodia to get a passport],” he said. 

Despite the denials from the Passport Department and Foreign Ministry, Cambodian migrants in Malaysia told The Post earlier this month that they had to pay agencies fees of more than $800 to obtain new passports abroad, with multiple Cambodian agencies giving similar accounts.

Oeung Hong, the general manager of the RTR agency in Phnom Penh, also said migrants could get passports made from abroad through his company. “For $600, we can do it,” he said.
Of this, about $590 went to the passport department. “This is an unofficial process,” he said.
He said the Interior Ministry checked “the background of the passport owner” to confirm that the person was unable to travel back.

Another agency also confirmed that they offered the service – again for $600. An employee said it would take three weeks to process the passports, and that they would bring all documents – copy of ID card, photo and old passport – to the Interior Ministry. 

It remains unclear whether passports can be bought without an old passport.Preap Kol, Transparency International executive director, said the Interior Ministry “should promptly conduct an investigation to find out if there is any misconduct or corruption as being alleged”.
“If any misconduct or corruption is found, the punishment shall be made according to the laws,” he said.

Moeun Tola, of labour rights group Central, said that such high passport fees forced migrants into illegality. “If true, that is the main root cause that puts migrants into the undocumented status. If you can’t afford $600, you have to stay illegally,” he said. 

In the first two weeks of July, 79 Cambodian undocumented migrants were arrested in Malaysia in a crackdown by the Malaysian government, according to a Foreign Ministry statement. 

Officials at the Cambodian Embassy there said yesterday that they did not have updated figures, but noted that about 30 Cambodians were seeking shelter at the embassy. The officials directed all other questions to the Foreign Ministry before hanging up. 

Tola said the embassy indicated it didn’t have the resources to repatriate arrested undocumented workers because the Cambodian government allocated no resources.
“It’s not even about mass repatriation – also for individual cases they always approach the [International Organisation for Migration]. But IOM doesn’t fund unless they’re victims of human trafficking.”

The IOM could not be reached for comment yesterday. If passport and recruitment fees weren’t reduced, he said, migrants would continue to be pushed into undocumented status.
“That’s a big failure of the Cambodian government.” 

Additional reporting by Touch Sokha

Source - PhnomPenhPost

Thai labour ministry sets up 99 centres to register illegal foreign workers.


Thailand's labour ministry plans to register workers from Myanmar who do not have proper documents at 99 migrant centres around the nation, according to Thai-based migrant worker rights groups.

 Petcharat Sinouy, inspector-general and spokesperson of the Thai Labour Ministry, said in a statement last week that the migrant centres will gather documents and photographs from workers and their employers.

She also said employees will be given a receipt by the migrant centre officer who accepts the documents.

U Aung Kyaw, vice chair of the Migrant Workers Rights Network, told The Myanmar Times on Tuesday that the migrant centres will be open every day from July 24 to August 7 to register illegal migrant workers.

Migrant workers who get the receipts from the Labour Ministry can go back to Myanmar and will be allowed to return to their Thai employers as legal workers within 180 days, said U Aung Kyaw.

“Under the program, employers who hire illegal foreigner workers must inform a migrant centre within 15 days to get the receipts. Illegal workers who have receipts can apply for a certificate of identity or can return home for apply for a passport,” said U Aung Kyaw.
“The receipts are essential for illegal workers,” he added.

The registration program is intended to address the lack of workers in Thailand and to help employers in Thailand who are using illegal foreigner workers, according to the group.
But Ko Shwe Tun Aye, chair of the Migrant Workers Network in Phuket, said 15 days are not enough for workers and employers to prepare for registration.

Other Myanmar migrant activists also said the two governments must work together to supervise the migrant registration program to prevent illegal Myanmar migrant workers from being exploited by unscrupulous brokers working with some employers and corrupt officials.
They said Myanmar migrant workers have been exploited in every program for illegal migrants that has been tried in Thailand.

The Thai government launched a crackdown on illegal foreign workers after issuing harsh new labour laws on June 23 that include a prison term and a fine for employers who hire illegal workers.

Thousands of Myanmar migrant workers have returned home, and Thai business have faced a shortage of workers.

After a public uproar, the government was forced to suspend the new laws for six months to give illegal migrant workers and their employers more time to satisfy the new requirements.
There are about four million Myanmar migrant workers living and working in Thailand, of which about one million do not have the proper documents, according to Myanmar migrant right groups.

Source - MMTIMES

Friday, May 12, 2017

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