Thai Migrant Labour
We look at how the search for a better life can lead to hardship in Thailand.
In April this year, 54 illegal Myanmar migrants died while being smuggled to the Thai resort island of Phuket. They suffocated in the back of a crowded refrigerator truck, when the air-conditioning system failed.
But their tragic story is only one of many.
Thailand is a magnet for cheap migrant labour from all over South East Asia – Cambodia, Laos and particularly Myanmar.
Willing workers are smuggled across Thailand’s porous borders to take up the so-called “3D” jobs – demanding, dirty, and dangerous – that Thais don’t want.
Over two million migrant workers have now made Thailand their home, and the majority of them are illegal.
As they toil on farms, fishing boats and building sites, adding to Thailand’s prosperity, these foreign workers are exploited by trafficking gangs and ruthless employers.
This week, 101 East looks at how a migrant’s search for a better life in Thailand, can often lead to hardship or even death.
Joining host Teymoor Nabili to discuss the issue is Nara Rattanarut from Thailand’s Ministry of Labour, Sunai Phasuk from Human Rights Watch, and Associate Professor Giles Ungpakorn from Chulalongkorn University.
This episode of 101 East aired on Thursday, May 05, 2008.