The Asian Human Rights Commission today joins with the Asian Migrant Centre, Hong Kong, and other organisations worldwide in a global day of action to call for the repeal of the provincial decrees in Thailand against the basic rights of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers there.
The provincial decrees, which have been introduced in the southern provinces of Phuket, Ranong, Rayong and Pang-nga, and have been followed by administrative orders of a similar nature in Surat Thani, Krabi and Chaing Mai, are designed to explicitly deny the fundamental human rights of persons who have come to work in Thailand, whether legally or illegally.
Among the provisions contained in these decrees and orders are that migrants are prohibited from leaving their designated housing at night, are prohibited from using mobile phones, and are prohibited from gathering together outside of their houses in groups of more than five. The governors who have issued the documents have also warned their employers to keep a close watch on these employees “at all times”.
Migrant workers in Thailand have for a long time suffered many impositions and indignities, but have been obliged to bear them due to personal circumstances. Most are from Burma and Cambodia, where economic conditions are such that young and healthy persons have no alternative but to seek work abroad to support their families. The many abuses that they have endured in Thailand, particularly women and girls, who are at risk of sexual abuse and forced prostitution, have been well-documented by groups working there over many years.
However, these new provisions come at a time of heightened militarisation and declining democratisation in Thailand, and thus are a cause for special concern. The generals that took over government by force in September 2006 have since worked hard to re-establish an apparatus for lasting control of key state institutions, including at the provincial level, where army officers are being posted to act as deputy governors and the Internal Security Operations Command has also concentrated upon greatly enhancing the capacity of the military to monitor and intervene in the provinces at short notice. It is thus not surprising that at a time when liberties are declining and the administration is in need of purported enemies and threats to justify its expanding military control it is the most vulnerable groups–especially migrant workers–that have been easily targetted.
The decrees and orders concerning migrant workers in these provinces are an affront to basic human dignity and a flagrant breach of Thailand’s commitments under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which it joined in 2003, and which obliges it to treat all persons equally before the law without regard to national or ethnic origin. The Asian Human Rights Commission thus joins the calls of concerned organisations and individuals in Thailand and abroad for their immediate repeal. It urges the authorities to respect the contribution that migrant workers make to their country, rather than use them to create yet another false threat against national security and social stability.
