CRACKDOWNS IN THE MIDST OF A CRISIS

Thursday, 03 November 2011 09:40

Opinion Piece: Jackie Pollock, MAP Foundation, Nov 4th2011

In the midst of a humanitarian crisis, the local authorities in Mae Sot,Tak Province have declared a witch hunt on undocumented migrant workers.Mae Sot is the closest crossing point intoBurma for the thousands of migrants affected by the floods inBangkok andCentral Thailand. It is also a town of refuge, or at least was.As a border town with a bi-cultural identity, and a large Burmese community, migrants from to other parts of Thailand could expect their friends and families to shelter and feed them in Mae Sot in times of crisis. The Burmese community in Mae Sot was thus able to contribute to the flood relief efforts and to some extent lessen the burden on the Thai government for looking after some of the migrant workers. But the refuge has now turned into a new crisis. The local authorities, seemingly ignoring what is happening in the rest of Thailand, have announced their annual post registration crackdown on undocumented migrants. The result will be chaos.

Immigration crackdowns have in the past left hundreds of workers stranded, women have given birth in fields, children have had to leave schools for fear that they may be separated from their parents. With hundreds of workers who have fled the floods also being in Mae Sot, the consequences will be ever more dire. Although workers with documents have been given special permission to travel across provinces to escape the floods, many have lost their documents and many employers have held on to the documents of their workers. Without documents they are liable to deportation. Then there are those migrants who were employed in the flooded areas who were always undocumented . They too have suffered, they too have lost their livelihoods. In a recent fire in a migrant workers site in Chiang Mai, one worker told how he had saved for a motorbike, putting 30 baht a day in a box for the last five years. The fire took every last satang. How many of the migrants in the flood are in the same situation? With no access to banking facilities, undocumented migrants can only keep their savings somewhere about their home, easily taken by flood or fire or in raids. And those undocumented migrants in Mae Sot are not criminals themselves, they too are working for an employer, they too are providing assistance to their compatriots who were hit by the floods. Raid, arrest and deport and the whole fabric of social support in Mae Sot breaks down.

Surely this is not the time for a crackdown? Surely this is the time for compassion and for coordination. Surely this is the time for local authorities and NGOs to pool their resources to assist all who have suffered in the floods, not to drive them or their support communities out of the country.

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CRACKDOWNS IN THE MIDST OF A CRISIS

Thursday, 03 November 2011 09:40

The Friendship Bridge may be opened amongst great fanfare but for the migrants it is starting to look like it is only open for their deportation not for their assistance.

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