Thailand/Burma: Support migrant workers

In 2004, the Royal Thai Government(RTG) and the Burmese military junta signed a Memorandum of Understanding providing for nationality verification of "illegal" Burmese migrants already working in Thailand so that they could become "legal." The process was never implemented. In late 2008, RTG announced that no migrants would remain "illegally" in Thailand after 28th February 2010. A final 30-day amnesty for unregistered migrants was allowed in July 2009 during which 1 million migrants registered. RTG then announced all registered Burmese migrants in Thailand must undertake nationality verification by means of a complex 13-stage process involving Thai employment offices, the Burmese Embassy in Thailand, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Burma and Thailand, and National Verification and Processing Centres in three border crossings in both Burma and Thailand. According to the RTG, all registered Burmese migrants in Thailand have until Feb 28th 2010 to enter nationality verification or face deportation.

Information is spreading in migrant communities on these processes but the RTG has not yet conducted public relations campaigns with migrants, NGOs or labour organisations. Certain ethnic groups, especially Shan and Karen, are increasingly fearful of providing personal information as rumors of negative effects on their families surface once this information reaches the Burmese junta. Rumors are spreading that Burma intends to catch political activists through the process, and Muslims are excluded. The NV process is costly, complicated and not transparent. Some migrant workers, to date, have not started the process due to various reasons from high costs to lack of knowledge of the NV process. RTG's only plan for migrants who do not go through the NV process is deportation.