Joint Report Highlights Development Potential of Migration in Thailand, Warns of Policy Shortfall
Migration is contributing to growth, development and stability in
Thailand, but to harness its full potential, the South East Asian
nation must introduce comprehensive and long term migration
policies, according to a joint report launched today.
The Thailand Migration Report 2011 says that despite efforts to
control irregular migration, large numbers of irregular migrant
workers from neighbouring countries continue to arrive and work in
Thailand.
Some two million migrants are currently enrolled at some stage
of the country's complex registration process for migrant workers
and an estimated one million migrants and family members are
unregistered. Women account for an estimated 45 per cent of the
migrant population and children for 11 per cent.
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target="_blank" title="">Thailand Migration Report 2011
The report, the third of its kind, is a collaborative effort of
the UN Thematic Working Group on Migration in Thailand, a group
comprised of 12 UN agencies, the World Bank and the International
Organization for Migration (IOM).
It provides a comprehensive update of migration statistics,
policies and legislation in Thailand and includes chapters that
explore the interrelationship between migration and aspects of
development including health, the environment, gender, children and
education.
The report says that migrants, the majority of them unskilled
workers from neighbouring Myanmar, Cambodia and the Lao PDR, have
boosted economic development in Thailand, particularly in the
sectors in which they concentrated, notably the fishing and frozen
food sectors.
But it suggests that greater labour productivity could be
achieved with better enforcement of labour standards to cover all
workers in Thailand in both the formal and informal sectors,
regardless of their nationality.
The report also points to the economic benefits of Thailand's
open economy, which attracts highly skilled workers, with over
100,000 work permits issued to skilled professionals in 2009.
An ASEAN agreement to improve the free flow of skilled labour
across the region by 2015 will also benefit the Thailand economy
through knowledge transfers, human capital acquisition and
increased labour productivity, as well as increased opportunities
for Thai professionals to work overseas, it notes.
Some 150,000 Thai workers who to migrate overseas each year also
make an important contribution to the Thai economy, in the form of
remittances sent home to their families. But the report points to
the need for a more comprehensive management of their migration
process to ensure them greater protection, particularly
overseas.
Addressing the human rights of both Thai workers abroad and
migrant workers in Thailand, the report emphasizes that all migrant
host countries have an obligation to protect the human rights of
migrants from the abuses of employers and state officials.
Irregular migrants in Thailand remain a vulnerable group and can
be subject to extortion, arrest, deportation and human trafficking,
despite the country's commitment to human rights as a signatory of
major international human rights treaties, it notes.
Access to basic healthcare is an important measure of migrants'
rights and Thailand has made efforts to include regular migrants in
the public health system.
But according to the report, the implementation of this
inclusion has been hampered by language and cultural barriers,
stretched hospital resources, and perceived and real discrimination
by employers, hospital staff and the local population.
Migrant workers continue to face barriers to integration in
Thailand, including segregated housing on site provided by their
employers. Almost 80 per cent of the Thai public believe that
migrants commit more crimes than Thais, and nearly 85 per cent
believe that irregular migrants should not expect any rights at
work, it notes.
The report also addresses the situation of the 95,000 refugees
in Thailand's nine border camps or "temporary shelters for persons
fleeing fighting in Myanmar." It points to the fact that the
refugees are totally dependent on external aid, unable to move and
should be provided with more job opportunities to become
self-sufficient.
According to the report, a comprehensive and coherent migration
management strategy is critical to ensuring, firstly, that there is
proper coordination across distinct policymaking spheres, and
secondly, that migration benefits both the development of Thailand
and the migrants themselves.
The Thailand Migration Report 2011 is available in English and
Thai. Hard copies can be obtained from the IOM Thailand. Soft
copies can be downloaded from:
"http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/shared/shared/mainsite/activities/countries/docs/thailand/TMR-2011.pdf"
target="_blank" title=
"">http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/shared/shared/mainsite/
activities/countries/docs/thailand/TMR-2011.pdf
For more information please contact:
Chris Lom
IOM Bangkok
Tel: + 66819275215
E-mail:
"mailto:clom@iom.int">clom@iom.int
or
Claudia Natali
IOM Bangkok
Tel: +66-(0)2-343-9354
E-mail:
"mailto:cnatali@iom.int">cnatali@iom.int