• Burmese
Sunday, May 25, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
26 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home News Asia

New Rules, New Debts: Slavery Fears Rise for Migrant Workers in Thailand

Thomson Reuters Foundation by Thomson Reuters Foundation
August 30, 2019
in Asia
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0 0
A A
Police officers stand near a fishing boat during an inspection at the pier of Songkhla, south Thailand, on December 23, 2015. / Reuters

Police officers stand near a fishing boat during an inspection at the pier of Songkhla, south Thailand, on December 23, 2015. / Reuters

5.1k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

PHNOM PENH/RAYONG, Thailand—When Leng Lyda swapped Cambodia for a fishing town in Thailand hoping to find a job in the seafood industry, he was ready for hard work. But he wasn’t prepared for the delay, or the debt.

The 22-year-old landed a job as soon as he arrived earlier this year, but without the right to work, he spent three months living rough on the docks and racking up debts while his employer processed the papers to hire him as a migrant worker.

“All I can do is wait,” Lyda said, sitting in a ramshackle cafe as Cambodians dragged giant nets onto trawlers behind him.

RelatedPosts

Thai Court Issues Warrants Over Deadly Tower Collapse During Quake

Thai Court Issues Warrants Over Deadly Tower Collapse During Quake

May 16, 2025
403
Thailand Risks Surrendering Its Economy to Chinese Interests

Thailand Risks Surrendering Its Economy to Chinese Interests

May 2, 2025
3.1k
Skulls, Smoke and Spirits: Thai Ceremony Honors the Unclaimed Dead

Skulls, Smoke and Spirits: Thai Ceremony Honors the Unclaimed Dead

April 29, 2025
427

“After, I have no choice but to work for him until I repay the debt,” he said, explaining that he would start his job owing at least 30,000 Thai baht ($980) to his employer due to the registration fee and other expenses. “My fate is in his hands.”

Millions of migrant workers from Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos toil in Thailand’s low-skilled sectors, where limited state oversight and unscrupulous employment practices leave many vulnerable to exploitation and modern slavery, activists say.

The Southeast Asian nation last year launched an overhaul of the registration process for migrant workers, granting them the same labor rights as local hires, including access to free healthcare, pension contributions and child allowances.

In the first phase of the revamp, the government aims to ensure two million legitimate migrant workers are registered afresh—a process that must be carried out by employers but paid for by workers earning as little as 10,000 baht a month.

Visas, work permits and health checks—the conditions of the new agreement—cost a total of about 6,700 baht.

However migrants and labor activists said that employers, middlemen and brokers are inflating the cost and saddling workers with fresh debts—trapping many in exploitative workplaces as they struggle to pay off what they owe.

Debt bondage is one of the world’s most prevalent forms of modern slavery, which affects 610,000 people in Thailand, shows the Global Slavery Index by rights group Walk Free Foundation.

“Edge of society”

Dozens of migrant workers in the eastern province of Rayong told the Thomson Reuters Foundation they had been charged up to 25,000 baht by their employers to be registered under the new system—almost four times the cost set out by the government.

“(Migrant) workers (in Thailand) mostly get their information from the employers and brokers who take advantage of them and profit by keeping a percentage of their pay,” said Sa Saroeun with the Raks Thai Foundation, a legal aid charity.

“Migrant workers live on the edge of society, afraid to do wrong, so whatever their bosses tell them, they will pay,” added Saroeun, who works to inform migrants about their legal rights.

The labor ministry is telling migrant workers the real costs of registration with the new system and encouraging them to report employers who charge higher fees, said Suwan Duangta, inspector-general at the ministry’s department of employment.

“Workers are not able to submit requests on their own,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “If the employers charge more, the workers can file a complaint to the department, and then the department will ask the employer to return the money.”

Yet charities that help migrant workers said they had little confidence in the state’s message finding its intended audience.

Thailand has three million migrant workers on its books but the United Nations’ migration agency (IOM) estimates there are at least two million more working illegally across the country.

But the overhaul is unlikely to encourage undocumented workers or new arrivals seeking work to become registered, according to Reuben Lim, an IOM spokesman in Thailand.

Informal fees, time-consuming visits to government agencies, and confusion over legal processes have long dissuaded migrants from obtaining legitimate jobs, both activists and workers said.

“Many migrant workers continue to believe that the cumbersome process does not outweigh the speed, flexibility and cost-effectiveness of irregular channels,” Lim of the IOM said.

Stuck

When about 30 Cambodian factory workers were informed of the new system at a workshop in Rayong in June, just six of them said they would be able to cover the registration cost up front.

The rest told the Thomson Reuters Foundation the only option was to ask their bosses to pay the fee on their behalf, then become indebted to them and face deductions from their wages.

Bosses often baulk at the lengthy registration process and instead turn to middlemen, according to labor activists who say this practice increases migrant workers’ debts with no guarantee that the terms of the repayment will be transparent or fair.

“There’s still no mechanism to ensure that the deduction will be legal,” said Chonticha Tangworamongkon, director of the Human Rights and Development Foundation, which provides legal aid to migrants.

Like many other migrants across Thailand, Cambodian construction worker Mao Malis has no idea how much money she owes her boss—or how long it will take to clear the debt.

“For now, it’s impossible to change employer,” said Malis, whose employer in Ban Phe—a fishing town 200 km (124 miles) south of the capital, Bangkok—takes about 15 percent of her 11,000-baht salary each month to repay her registration costs.

“He has invested in me, so I am stuck here until he agrees that I’ve paid everything back.”

You may also like these stories:

No Sewing Please, We’re Sex Workers: Thai Prostitutes Battle Stigma

Fire Kills 20 Myanmar Migrant Workers on Bus in Thailand: Police

The Struggle Continues for Myanmar Migrants in Thailand

Your Thoughts …
Tags: MigrationSlaveryThailand
Thomson Reuters Foundation

Thomson Reuters Foundation

Agency

Similar Picks:

Myanmar Junta Arrests Thai Condo Buyers, Realtors as Currency Crashes
Business

Myanmar Junta Arrests Thai Condo Buyers, Realtors as Currency Crashes

by The Irrawaddy
June 4, 2024
27.6k

Monday’s arrests follow reports that Myanmar has become one of Thailand’s most lucrative markets for selling condos since the 2021...

Read moreDetails
Reluctant Exiles: Another ‘Life or Death’ Exodus From Myanmar
Stories That Shaped Us

Reluctant Exiles: Another ‘Life or Death’ Exodus From Myanmar

by Brian Wei
April 8, 2024
22.1k

The latest exodus of reluctant exiles from Myanmar comprises young people forced to leave everything behind to escape becoming frontline...

Read moreDetails
Five-Star Casino Resort on Myanmar Tropical Island Runs Out of Luck
Burma

Five-Star Casino Resort on Myanmar Tropical Island Runs Out of Luck

by The Irrawaddy
February 6, 2024
19.1k

U Kyaw Lwin ran his casino resort on the visa-free island for more than 10 years before facing arrest in...

Read moreDetails
Myanmar Youth Exodus Feared in Wake of Junta’s Conscription Law
Burma

Myanmar Youth Exodus Feared in Wake of Junta’s Conscription Law

by The Irrawaddy
February 15, 2024
15.6k

Activists warn of increased labor rights violations in Thailand and human trafficking as young people flee to avoid mandatory military...

Read moreDetails
Myanmar Junta Enforces Rule Requiring Migrant Workers to Remit 25% of Pay
Burma

Myanmar Junta Enforces Rule Requiring Migrant Workers to Remit 25% of Pay

by The Irrawaddy
August 5, 2024
15k

Those working in Thailand under a govt-to-govt scheme who fail to remit 25% of their pay via the formal banking...

Read moreDetails
Myanmar General Jailed Over Humiliating Battlefield Defeat Near Thai Border
Burma

Myanmar General Jailed Over Humiliating Battlefield Defeat Near Thai Border

by The Irrawaddy
July 16, 2024
12.2k

Brigadier-general sentenced to 14 years in prison over his division’s hasty retreat from a base protecting Myawaddy to safety beneath...

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
Dr. Thein Maung (third from left) with Dr. Ba Maw (far left), Thakin Mya (second from left) and General Aung San.

Myanmar’s First Ambassador to Japan Appointed During WWII

Thai drug-smuggling suspects detained by the UWSA / UWSA

UWSA Says 14 Thais among Drug Smugglers Held in Northeast Myanmar

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

‘Indian Troops Killed Myanmar Resistance Fighters to Send a Message’

‘Indian Troops Killed Myanmar Resistance Fighters to Send a Message’

3 days ago
2.4k
China’s Two-Faced Diplomacy in Myanmar

China’s Two-Faced Diplomacy in Myanmar

6 days ago
2.4k

Most Read

  • Dead or Alive: Min Aung Hlaing’s Final Gamble

    Dead or Alive: Min Aung Hlaing’s Final Gamble

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Has the Revolutionary Spirit Gone? Shan Armed Forces in Crisis as Public Doubts Grow

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Assassination Rocks Yangon; Junta Boss Rewrites History; and More

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Adidas Shoe Factory Agrees to Striking Workers’ Demands

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • ‘Indian Troops Killed Myanmar Resistance Fighters to Send a Message’

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.