The Thai government has handed over 600 Myanmar migrant workers to the Myanmar government via the Tachileik-Mae Sai Bridge at the Thai-Myanmar border within seven months after they were arrested for violating the Thai labor law.
Among the migrant workers that have been arrested from January 1 to July 1, 600 workers - 399 men and 201 women - have been officially handed over to the Myanmar authorities via the No. 2 Tachileik-Mae Sai Friendship Bridge.
“The Thai police deported 14 people on July 17. We see people entering Thailand every day. Some of them are visiting [the country], some of them are receiving medical treatment, and some of them go there to work. At first, the Thai government announced that it will tighten the inspection, but I think the authorities became less focused in this area due to the issue of the kids who got trapped in the cave. Otherwise, people won’t even dare to go to Mae Sai even to go shopping, but I often see people being deported at the border after they were arrested in another area,” said Nan Sai, a market seller from a market in Mae Sai.
According to Thai media, the Myanmar authorities told the Shan migrant workers that they will be taken back home after they were deported to Tachileik by the Thai police.
Migrant workers can be arrested in Thailand if they do not have work permits, have wrong addresses and wrong workplaces in their work permits, have expired passports and expired visa, and fail to report for 90 days.
After they are arrested, the Thai government transfers Myanmar migrant workers to the Myanmar government via Tachileik-Mae Sai Friendship Bridge and Myawaddy-Mae Sot Friendship Bridge.
The Thai Department of Labor announced in early June that it will launch a crackdown against migrant workers under three project periods: from July 1 to 15, from August 1 to 15, and from September 1 to 15.
“If the migrant workers are coming to work in Thailand, they must follow the rules that are issued by the Thai government in order to avoid being arrested. The Thai authorities announced that it will start a crackdown within these two or three months so they need to be careful. They need to avoid violating the labor law,” said Sai Purng from the Human Rights Development Foundation (HRDF).
The Thai Ministry of Labor announced that the Thai authorities inspected 1,623 workplaces and over 30,000 workers from July 1 to 15 and arrested 156 employers and 816 illegal workers. Among them, the majority of the arrested workers are from Myanmar.
