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Myanmar ready to shoot workers depo



Subject: Myanmar ready to shoot workers deported from Thailand 

Myanmar ready to shoot workers deported from Thailand 

Varunee Torsricharoen 

Kyodo, Bangkok, 13 November 1999. authorities in Myanmar have 
threatened  to shoot Myanmar workers being deported to Myanmar
from Thailand, reports reaching Bangkok on Saturday say. 

The threats are exacerbating an already intractable problem that has 
also left many deported Myanmar workers starving in the jungles along 
the Thai-Myanmar border as they try to avoid the authorities in
their homeland as well as those in Thailand. 

According to sources along the border, Myanmar is refusing to 
recognize the illegal immigrants being sent home from Thailand 
as citizens, has closed many border crossing points, and has threatened 
in other cases to throw migrants into jail for up to nine years for entering 
Myanmar 'illegally.' 

Thailand is trying to repatriate as many as one million people from 
Myanmar,  Laos, Cambodia and some other countries who had been 
working illegally in  Thailand. 

For years, the Thai government turned a blind eye as hundreds of 
thousands  of people fled repressive governments and economic 
hardship at home,  particularly in Myanmar, to seek freedom and 
work in Thailand. 

But with the economic meltdown that began in July 1997 having 
thrown at  least 1.4 million Thais out of work, the government 
decided to deport all  illegal workers who failed to get work permits 
by Nov. 3. 

The process has, however, turned exceedingly ugly. 

Already several hundred illegal workers from Myanmar, mostly members 
of the Shan ethnic minority, have sneaked back into Thailand in Mae Hong Son 
Province after being deported by Thai authorities and then detained in their 
homeland as 'stateless' immigrants there. 

Now, according to Sai Myint, a 27-year-old Shan, he and some 40 other Shan 
workers were jailed by the Myanmar authorities soon after they were trucked 
into Myanmar Nov. 9. 

'They claimed we were illegal immigrants despite the fact that 
we are Myanmarese,  so we waited until they were inattentive 
and we stole away from the jail,' he said. 

In a report from the province in Thailand's far north, Sai Myint 
was quoted as saying he and the others are now hiding in the 
jungle because they fear arrest in Thailand as well as at home. 

'We are hiding, but we are also starving, especially the children,' 
he said, adding at least one member of his group has already died 
after the initial 3-kilometer walk into Myanmar. 

And the situation is unlikely to improve soon. 

Myanmar shut border points after five exiled students took over 
the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok in early October and held 
hostages there for 25 hours. The ruling junta in Yangon took the action
because they felt Thailand was too lenient with the student exiles. 

Adding to the overall problem, as of the Nov. 3 deadline for obtaining 
work permits, only about 106,000 of the estimated one million unskilled w
orkers from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar in Thailand were given 
permission to remain and take jobs. The rest are to be repatriated. 

Even those 'lucky' enough to get work permits can take jobs only in 
one of 37 provinces and must work in only 18 business sectors, 
including agriculture, fisheries, construction and mining. 

And even those work permits will expire Aug. 5 next year. 

Illegal workers are widely sought by Thai businesses seeking 
to exploit their low wage rates, but the many Thais who are now 
unemployed claim the migrants take jobs away from them and that their
willingness to work for extremely low wages drives down wages for Thai 
workers as well. 

Thailand's minimum wage for unskilled labor ranges from 130 to 162 baht 
daily (about 3.5 to 4.3 dollars), but illegal workers will work for only 
one-third that amount. 

Thai labor law requires all workers, illegal or not, to be paid minimum 
wage, but the threat of deportation meant many illegal workers could 
be easily intimidated into accepting wages far below the minimum. 
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