Thai Demand for Burmese Migrant Workers Rises

8 July 2013

Thai demand for Burmese migrant workers is on the rise and the Federation of Overseas Employment Agencies has received requests to send 5,000 migrant workers per month to Thailand, up from 3,000 workers in previous months, Eleven Media reports. Workers sent through a Burmese labor agency are supposed to earn a daily wage of US $10, but often they are paid less, as Thai employers try to recoup transport, visa and other costs of bringing in a worker. The federation’s chairman Ming Hlaing said workers “have to repay 1,000 baht [$30] per month from their salaries for 10 months. But the employers take more than the amount which is agreed upon in the contract.”