Pregnant Migrant Workers Fear Repatriation From Thailand

Recent reports that Thai authorities will repatriate pregnant migrant workers have created an atmosphere of fear and worry among the large community of Burmese migrant workers in Thailand.

The reports follow an interview in Samut Sakhorn earlier in November by the deputy prime minister of Thailand, Gen Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, when he stated that tighter security measures would need to be put in place following media reports that up to 2,000 babies were being born to migrant workers every month.

According to Thai newspaper Komchadluek on November 16, Sonthi said that from now on pregnant migrant workers would have to return to their home countries to give birth. He was quoted as saying that migrant workers would not be permitted to give birth and settle in Thailand.

Maung Aye, a Burmese migrant who has been working as a mason in Thailand for about 18 years, said that when he went to Phuket Hospital in southern Thailand recently to receive treatment for his two year-old child a nurse told him that pregnant migrant workers and their children would now have to return home.

Maung Aye said, “When I heard this news I felt so sad; however, if they order us to go back we cannot refuse.”

As well as a two year-old, Maung Aye has another child who is ten.

He says he is worried for their future: “When we listen to the Burmese news we hear that the Burmese military government is now arresting children and forcing them to become soldiers. We are worried about bringing up our children in Burma.”

Another Burmese migrant worker, Khin Myint, who lives in Samut Sakhorn and has a young infant, said that if the Thai government takes tough action their problems will double.

“We came here [to Thailand] so our family could survive,” she said. “If we have to go back to give birth then we will face many problems along the way. The transportation cost in itself is too much.”

To travel from Mae Sot, a town on the Thai-Burmese border, to the Thai capital, Bangkok, can cost migrant workers as much as 15,000 baht (more than US $440) in bribes and costs, according to a Burmese migrant workers’ rights group.

Ko Ko Aung, an official from the Seafarers’ Union of Burma, based in Thailand, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that pregnant Burmese women would be risking arrest by Thai authorities if they are forced to travel home, as their work permit does not allow them to travel out of certain permitted areas, he said.

“Therefore, they will be sent to jail—not home,” said Ko Ko Aung.

Currently, very few migrant workers are aware of this report.

According to Ko Ko Aung, an estimated 2,000 babies are born to Burmese migrant workers every year in Samut Sakhorn Province alone. In the province, there are fewer than 100,000 legal Burmese migrant workers in comparison to an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 migrants from Burma who are working illegally. The largest community of Burmese migrant workers in Samut Sakhorn is ethnic Mon people, he said.

Sompong Sakaew, from the Labour Rights Promotion Network, based in Mahachai District in Samut Sakhorn, told The Irrawaddy that the problem stems from the Thai media not reporting the issue correctly.

“Actually, the number of newborn babies cannot be as high as the media reported—some 2,000 babies per month,” he said. “The maximum is just 300 to 350 per month.”

Sompong added that pregnant women might be inclined to seek abortions if they feared deportation from Thailand.

A field coordinator at the Migrant Assistance Program in southern Thailand said that if the Thai authorities take tough action as they said they would, many problems would arise and it could develop into a big issue for labor rights groups.

However, according to a labor rights group worker, last week the Thai authorities held a meeting with migrant workers’ rights groups and discussed Gen Sonthi’s reported speech.

During the meeting the labor rights groups called for the Thai authorities to make an official announcement declaring that pregnant migrant workers would not, in fact, be repatriated.