Demand for cheap labor on the rise

Demand for cheap labor on the rise

Migrants 

Despite Bangkok's announcement on 4 December to root out illegal alien laborers from Thailand back to Burma altogether, a social worker in Chiangmai said Thailand's demand for cheap labor continued to be on the increase side. 

"The labor demand and official corruption in Thailand make logical bedfellows with state terrorism in Burma," philosophized Prathiprat (not his real name) who had assisted in the labor ministry's registration of Chiangmai's Irregular Immigrant Workers, as illegal laborers from Thailand's neighboring countries are known in the official terminology. 

"In fact, I see the three elements as an eternal triangle, where the preceding two are in love with the third." 
According to Suwat Littaphanlop, the new labor minister who replaced the ageing Dej Bunlong, even the registered workers will have only another year to stay. 

"I don't see how they can stop the people from Burma from coming in or push them all back from Thailand, as long as the said three factors are marching hand in hand," he continued. 

The reason, he concluded, was all the three governments: the present and its two predecessors, had merely given the migrant labor issue a cosmetic attention, followed by stopgap measures without bothering to look for long term solutions. "I don't see any way out until (PM) Thaksin pulls himself together to deal with the root causes instead of the symtoms," he said. "Moreover, he should work with us (NGOs) instead of branding us as homemade saboteurs hired by foreign agencies." 

The number of registered workers, on the other hand, have dropped from over 500,000 last year to 300,000 this year. "The actual number, as all know, is much higher. But since the registration fee is high, (3,450 baht) and the local authorities can be bribed, the majority of both employers and employees just prefer to keep it that way." 
Official report on the last "roll call" that ended on 6 November is yet to be released, according to him.