Managing migration in 2010: effective registration or effective deportation?

ON JANUARY 20, in just eight working days, the end of the "permission to stay and work in Thailand for one year, pending deportation" will arrive for 61,543 Burmese, Cambodian and Laotian migrants who "illegally" entered the country. As the first migrant work-permit-renewal deadline of the year it is, however, somewhat different to past deadlines. For, if any of these workers refuse to go through the Thai government's Nationality Verification (NV) process, policy announcements suggest they will be deported. Whether deportation starts then or on February 28 - the "final" deadline to agree to NV or be deported for the other million or so registered migrants whose work permits expire on that day - remains unclear.

NV is the Thai government's policy to formalise the status of some of the approximately two million migrants from Burma, Cambodian and Laos currently working in Thailand. These workers contribute an estimated 5-6 per cent of Thailand's GDP and make up around five per cent of the nation's workforce. For these people who work in Thailand's most dangerous, dirty and demeaning jobs, NV is apparently required because they left their countries without permission and entered Thailand "illegally". They are currently nationality-less labourers. As around 90 per cent of these workers are from Burma and in the most unenviable position of all, urgent attention must be given to this group.

CLEAR CHOICE

Migrants from Burma have since 2008 been given a clear choice by the Thai government. Whatever their ethnicity or personal histories, they must send their biographical details to the Burmese government and see if it agrees that they are "Burmese". If "no", no one yet knows what would happen to them as the Thai government has yet to make any policy announcements on this issue and it is unclear where they could be deported too. But if "yes", they can request permission from the Interior Ministry to leave their province of registration and return for NV in Burma. Cambodian and Laotian workers have the luxury of their officials coming to see them in Thailand, but Burma has for years refused such a sensible step, giving the Thai government an understandable headache! If once migrants arrive in Burma they are not arrested - rumours continue to abound they will be - and are "approved" as being Burmese, they will get a three-year Bt100 (3,000 kyat) "temporary" passport. These "Burmese" nationals then return to Thailand "legally" and receive a Bt500 two-year visa. Total costs: Bt600.

However, the NV process is not as easy as it seems. There are 13 steps involving at least three Thai ministries, the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok and a few more Burmese ministries. Unless you like adventure, employers and migrants are well advised to hire a broker for the journey. According to a Labour Ministry statement on December 22, in response to a Thai PBS documentary on these brokers, an ever increasing number of broker companies has been approved by the Burmese Embassy and have nothing to do with the Labour Ministry. This is despite the fact they are all based in and registered in Thailand. Costs for NV increase from around Bt600 to Bt6,000 with a broker. And that does not include the yearly fees for a work permit (Bt1,800), health check-up (Bt600) and health insurance (Bt1,300). For migrants who often earn as little as Bt4,000-5,000 per month, it's a small fortune most would prefer to send to their families in Burma. Most still have not paid off debts for the last work permit renewal. Costs are just one part of the equation, however. Security risks associated with the involvement of the Burmese government in NV weigh heavily on migrants' minds, as does the suspected relationship between NV and the 2010 Burmese elections.

However, there seems to be more pressing problems. The Labour Ministry has yet to announce its policy on renewal of migrant work permits that expire on January 20 or February 28. The government has also yet to officially announce what it will do given that as a result of high costs, lack of transparency, perceived insecurity, multi-layered bureaucracy and a lack of public awareness (by both migrants and employers) associated with NV, in almost one year only around 6,000 migrants from Burma have completed the process. In addition, NV relates just to the 1 million-plus migrants currently registered. There are at least a million more workers unregistered.

The Alien Workers Management Committee (AWMC) apparently decided on December 21, 2009 that it would submit the following recommendations to the Cabinet to deal with this unfortunate mess: (1) An extension of NV from February 28, 2010 for two years to allow all those concerned to get their act together and make NV a success; (2) Only migrants who are currently registered and agree to NV should be allowed to stay in Thailand and renew their work permits during these two years. For others, mass deportation presumably starts?

The Thai government seems to be making it clear that February 28 is the end of the era of year-on-year piecemeal migrant registration in Thailand and the move to NV. Thailand will no longer allow the country to be overrun by "illegal" migrants and all import and export of migrants must now be formalised between governments. MoUs with Cambodia, Laos and Burma must be made to work effectively. All eyes are now on the Cabinet (perhaps during the meeting tomorrow) where the AWMC recommendations will either be approved, modified or rejected. The Human Rights and Development Foundation's Migrant Justice Programme (MJP) comes into contact daily with migrants from Burma whose work permits expire on January 20. Fear, sleepless nights and stress are building in migrant communities. What if work permits are not renewed, especially for the significant number of migrants who have been working and living in Thailand for more than 10 years now? Migrants are considering if they shall have to go underground within days, or even just give up with a free deportation journey home to Burma to start a new chapter in their confusing lives.

As usual, the policy decision from the Cabinet is keenly awaited by migrant communities from Burma and makes once again for their precarious existence. But this year the executive decision is later than usual in coming. If all this is formalised tomorrow, that leaves just five working days for over 60,000 migrants (if they have agreed to NV) to renew their work permits. Migrants, employers and officials feel a last-minute administrative headache coming on again.

But more worryingly, is January 20 also the first round of mass deportations of those migrants who refuse to go through NV, with the second round coming soon after on February 28? At MJP, we also hear daily what migrants who refuse to go through NV think about returning to life in Burma. Given many refusing to go through NV are from Burma's ethnic minorities, we hear about their past lives in Shan, Karen or Mon states. We also hear what they think about going underground again and the pressures on them as being for years the breadwinners for their families.

EAGERLY AWAITING POLICY

That leaves us also eagerly awaiting the Thai government's policy regarding the potentially mass deportations of such huge numbers of migrants, especially after the recent international attention given to Hmong and Rohingya incidents. We receive some comfort from Thailand's statement in the UN's Human Rights Council on June 2, 2009, in which it said, "Thailand attaches importance to the rights of all migrant workers, and well recognises their valuable contribution to our labour market." But the recent return home of thousands of Hmong sends a shiver up our spines. We are concerned at this time not only for our friends and our communities, but also for employers and the Thai economy, which continues to be heavily dependent on these workers.

Mass deportation is surely not possible, right? But if mass deportation did go ahead, would the government ensure it was "real" deportation and not the usual arrest and costly release processes we have all seen for years? Would migrants return to Thailand on the same day as they were deported to Burma and things go on as normal?

The migrant-worker issue in Thailand will take on increased importance this year. Let's hope that the winners are migrants, their employers and the economy, and the losers irregular migration, bureaucracy, lack of transparency and even violence.

Andy Hall is the director of the Human Rights and Development Foundation's Migrant Justice Programme.