As floods continue to wreak havoc throughout much of central Thailand, Burmese migrants living in the country have been left largely to fend for themselves, according to volunteers working in some of the worst-hit areas.
“In Pathum Thani, many migrant workers live in remote areas, so it's difficult for people to bring them food, and if they try to reach relief centers on their own, it can take up to five hours,” said Thet Thet Oo, a member of a volunteer group formed to help stranded Burmese workers.
Many of Thailand's estimated two to four million Burmese migrant workers live in the country's industrial heartland, where flooding has been most most severe. Among the most affected areas are Ayutthaya, Thailand's ancient capital, and the provinces of Prathum Thani and Nonthaburi, just north of Bangkok.
According to labor rights groups, lack of relief assistance is not the only problem Burmese migrants are facing. In some cases, workers also have problems with employers and police due to their immigration status (only around 1.3 million Burmese migrants in Thailand are legally registered).
“We have heard of cases where employers cannot provide work but are not allowing migrants to have their documents, employers telling workers to resign or go home, and also cases when police are arresting migrants who travel across provincial boundaries to escape flooding,” said Andy Hall, a foreign expert at Bangkok's Mahidol University and a consultant to the Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF), a migrant rights group.
Hall advised migrants who cannot access emergency assistance or are denied it or discriminated against to urgently report their case to NGOs, labor unions or officials they can trust so these people can demand action from the government.
But as thousands of Burmese attempt to make their way back to their home country to escape the disaster in Thailand, the most important advice, according to Thet Thet Oo, is to resist the temptation to make the difficult journey to the border.
“Some migrants who are struggling to cope with the floods want to go back to Burma, but some have been arrested trying to make the trip,” she said. “That's why I would like to urge them not to go anywhere without documents and just stay at a relief center for a while.”
Meanwhile, in Mahachai, an area on the southwestern outskirts of Bangkok with a high concentration of Burmese migrants working in the fish-processing industry, many workers are taking their own precautions as the Thai capital braces for a deluge of floodwaters from the north.
“People here are worried, so some are stocking up on instant noodles and moving their belongings to the apartments of friends living in tall buildings,” said Aie Lawi Mon, a worker living in Mahachai.
As Burmese migrants do whatever it takes to ride out the floods, however, they shouldn't forget that there is another potential source of assistance available to them: the Burmese embassy in Bangkok.
According to Hall, the embassy has offered to help both those who need a place to stay in Thailand, and those who want to go back home to Burma. Although the embassy doesn't have much of a system in place for dealing with these situations, Burmese shouldn't hesitate to contact the embassy for help, he said.
“The Myanmar [Burmese] embassy has been showing increased interest in migrant issues lately, and we hope this flooding will be another opportunity for the Myanmar government to show it is genuine about protecting migrant workers in Thailand,” said Hall.
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