Thailand HUMAN From the Tiger to the Crocodile RIGHTS Abuse of Migrant Workers in Thailand WATCH From the Tiger to the Crocodile Abuse of Migrant Workers in Thailand Copyright © 2010 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 1-56432-602-0 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor New York, NY 10118-3299 USA Tel: +1 212 290 4700, Fax: +1 212 736 1300 [email protected] Poststraße 4-5 10178 Berlin, Germany Tel: +49 30 2593 06-10, Fax: +49 30 2593 0629 [email protected] Avenue des Gaulois, 7 1040 Brussels, Belgium Tel: + 32 (2) 732 2009, Fax: + 32 (2) 732 0471 [email protected] 64-66 Rue de Lausanne 1202 Geneva, Switzerland Tel: +41 22 738 0481, Fax: +41 22 738 1791 [email protected] 2-12 Pentonville Road, 2nd Floor London N1 9HF, UK Tel: +44 20 7713 1995, Fax: +44 20 7713 1800 [email protected] 27 Rue de Lisbonne 75008 Paris, France Tel: +33 (1)43 59 55 35, Fax: +33 (1) 43 59 55 22 [email protected] 1630 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 500 Washington, DC 20009 USA Tel: +1 202 612 4321, Fax: +1 202 612 4333 [email protected] Web Site Address: http://www.hrw.org February 2010 1-56432-602-0 From the Tiger to the Crocodile Abuse of Migrant Workers in Thailand Summary ........................................................................................................................... 1 Key Recommendations ................................................................................................... 6 Maps .................................................................................................................................. 8 Northern Thailand ........................................................................................................... 9 Ubon Ratchathani .......................................................................................................... 10 Rayong and Eastern Seaboard ....................................................................................... 11 Southern Thailand ......................................................................................................... 12 Bangkok and Surrounding Areas ................................................................................... 13 Mae Sot and Myawaddy ................................................................................................ 14 Mae Sot Border Checkpoints ......................................................................................... 15 Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 17 I. Failures of Thai Migration Policy .................................................................................... 19 Labor Migration to Thailand ........................................................................................... 19 Regulatory Gaps and Failures ........................................................................................ 21 Migrants Rights under International Law ........................................................................ 25 II. Provincial Decrees—Controls on Migrant Workers ......................................................... 28 Restrictions on Freedom of Association and Assembly ................................................. 30 Restrictions on Freedom of Expression ......................................................................... 32 Restrictions on Freedom of Movement ........................................................................... 33 III. Human Rights Abuses against Migrants ...................................................................... 36 Killings, Torture, and Physical Abuses against Migrants ................................................ 36 Killings by Security Forces ....................................................................................... 37 Torture and Ill-Treatment by Thai Authorities .......................................................... 38 Police Abuses: An Insider’s Account .............................................................................. 41 Failure to Investigate Crimes against Migrants ............................................................... 45 IV. Forced Labor and Human Trafficking ............................................................................ 52 V. Extortion of Migrants by Local Authorities .................................................................... 59 Systems of Extortion by Police and Local Officials......................................................... 59 Roadside Arrest and Extortion ....................................................................................... 61 At Police Stations ......................................................................................................... 63 Police Protection Rackets and Payments ....................................................................... 65 Extortion by Police Impersonators ................................................................................ 67 Extortion During Deportations at the Thai-Burma Border ............................................... 68 VI. Rights Violations in the Migration Registration System ............................................... 72 Mistreatment of Migrants by Employers, Brokers, and Authorities in the Migrant Worker Registration System ....................................................................................................... 75 VII. Labor Rights Abuses ................................................................................................... 79 No Freedom to Organize and Collectively Bargain ......................................................... 80 Intimidation and False Allegations against Workers ...................................................... 82 Retaliation against Workers Filing Labor Complaints ..................................................... 84 Labor Exploitation ........................................................................................................ 85 Seizure of Migrant Worker Documents .......................................................................... 88 VIII. Impunity for Abuses against Migrants ....................................................................... 90 IX. Recommendations ....................................................................................................... 93 Appendix I: Questionnaire ............................................................................................... 101 Appendix II: Letter to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva from Human Rights Watch .............104 Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... 110 Summary I am Burmese and a migrant worker that is why the police don’t care about this case.... [M]y husband and I are only migrant workers and we have no rights here. —Aye Aye Ma, from Burma, who was raped by two unknown Thai assailants after they shot and killed her husband on November 5, 2007, in Phang Nga province As “Thailand” means the “land of the free,” it is our Government’s policy to ensure that migrants can enjoy their freedom and social welfare in Thailand while their human rights are duly respected.... [M]igrant workers, regardless of their legal status, can seek justice in Thailand’s court system for any violent abuses to which they have been subjected, and which are covered by these laws. —Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, on October 5, 2009, Bangkok The thousands of migrant workers from Burma, Cambodia, and Laos who cross the border into Thailand each year trade near-certain poverty at home for the possibility of relative prosperity abroad. While most of these bids for a better life do not end as tragically as that of Aye Aye Ma, almost all play out in an atmosphere circumscribed by fear, violence, abuse, corruption, intimidation, and an acute awareness of the many dangers posed by not belonging to Thai society. From the moment they arrive in Thailand, many migrants face an existence straight out of a Thai proverb—escaping from the tiger, but then meeting the crocodile—that is commonly used to describe fleeing from one difficult or deadly situation into another that is equally bad, or sometimes worse. Migrant workers are effectively bonded to their employers and at risk of rights violations from government authorities. In many cases, police, military, and immigration officers, and other government officials threaten, physically harm, and extort migrant workers with impunity. Those detained face beatings and other abuses. And whether documented or undocumented, migrants in Thailand are especially vulnerable to abusive employers and common crime, which the Thai authorities are very reluctant to investigate and sometimes are complicit in. 1 Human Rights Watch | February 2010 In interviews in Thailand from August 2008 to May 2009 and in follow-up research through January 2010, we found evidence of widespread violations of the rights of migrant workers from Burma, Cambodia, and Laos. The violations are not limited to one or two areas but range the entire length of the country from the Thai-Lao border gateway towns in Ubon Ratchathani to the seaports on the Gulf of Thailand to remote crossroads in areas on the Thai-Burma border. Many types of abuses are either embedded in laws and local regulations, such as restrictions on freedom of movement, or are perpetrated by officials, such as extortion by the police. Human rights violations inflicted on migrants by police