Protests grow against expulsion of migrants from Thailand

THAILAND: Over 2 million migrants have been threatened by the Royal Thai Government with deportation after February 28, 2010 if they fail to enter a complex "nationality verification" process. Over 80 per cent of these migrants are from Burma and face ethnic and political conflict as well as continuing economic deterioration in their homeland, which is controlled by a military government. Migrants from Burma left their country illegally but are still being pressured by the Thai government to submit their biographical information to Burma's military government, return to Burma to complete nationality verification and then return to work "legally" in Thailand with temporary Burmese passports.

The International Metalworkers' Federation has joined its Thai affiliate TEAM, other labour and human rights groups in seeking to relax this ruling and ensure protection of migrants' human rights.

The Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF) in Thailand reports that:

Most migrants in Thailand do not yet understand the nationality verification process

Many migrants in Thailand have not yet entered nationality verification

Genuine humanitarian concerns remain for migrants forced to go through nationality verification in Burma

Unregulated nationality verification brokers are exploiting migrants

Many migrants from Burma cannot and will not enter nationality verification but no strategy to support them exists

In an open letter delivered to the Thai Prime Minister on February 16, the IMF joined over 60 Thai and international rights groups and trade unions in calling on the Thai government to extend the February 28, 2010 deadline and immediately cease threats of mass deportation. A copy of the letter can be seen here.

Earlier on February 16, outside the United Nation's (UN) offices in Bangkok, complaint letters were submitted by protesters to representatives of the UN's Special Rapporteurs on the Human Rights of Migrants and on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, as well as the Director General of the International Labour Organization.