HUMAN rights groups have cited an article written by two Phuket journalists in calling on the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to intervene to prevent further abuse of Burmese migrants deported from Thailand.
Mr Ban is due to meet Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva in Bangkok on Tuesday.
The three organisations, the State Enterprise Workers Relations Confederation, the Thai Labor Solidarity Committee and the Human Rights and Development Foundation, today called on the Thai Government ''to ensure transparent investigations into all migrant deportation abuse claims and punish those involved.
The Thai Government ''should also urgently reconsider its migration policies more generally to ensure respect for migrant's human rights.''
The statement from the groups said: '''The South China Morning Post' revealed migrants are being sold to traffickers during deportations in waters between Southern Thailand and Kawthuang (Burma/Myanmar) and then returned to Thailand.''
The article in the Hong Kong newspaper was a version of a report that first appeared in Phuketwan on August 31 entitled: ''Burmese Accuse Thai Officials of People Trafficking.''
The article contained interviews with two Burmese who accused officials in the border town of Ranong, north of Phuket, of selling illegal migrants by the boatload to people-smugglers and engaging in the sexual enslavement of young women.
The Phuketwan report was reprinted in the Spectrum section of 'The Bangkok Post' later that week.
Monday's media release from the three rights bodies also said that television channel Al-Jazeera ''reported how migrants deported to Myanmar are being sent to camps controlled by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army where they must pay for their release before being smuggled or trafficked back to Thailand.''
It added: ''Rights groups have demanded investigations into these allegations since July 2010 but no response has been evident and the abuses continue.''
Mr Ban's visit is also expected to trigger a rally by hundreds of red shirt sympathisers who want an investigation into the Government's handling of the dispersal of the red shirt protests in April and May.
The UN secretary-general's Bangkok visit is part of a four-nation tour of Asia that includes Cambodia, Vietnam and China.
Burmese Accuse Thai Officials of People TraffickingMr Ban is due to meet Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva in Bangkok on Tuesday.
The three organisations, the State Enterprise Workers Relations Confederation, the Thai Labor Solidarity Committee and the Human Rights and Development Foundation, today called on the Thai Government ''to ensure transparent investigations into all migrant deportation abuse claims and punish those involved.
The Thai Government ''should also urgently reconsider its migration policies more generally to ensure respect for migrant's human rights.''
The statement from the groups said: '''The South China Morning Post' revealed migrants are being sold to traffickers during deportations in waters between Southern Thailand and Kawthuang (Burma/Myanmar) and then returned to Thailand.''
The article in the Hong Kong newspaper was a version of a report that first appeared in Phuketwan on August 31 entitled: ''Burmese Accuse Thai Officials of People Trafficking.''
The article contained interviews with two Burmese who accused officials in the border town of Ranong, north of Phuket, of selling illegal migrants by the boatload to people-smugglers and engaging in the sexual enslavement of young women.
The Phuketwan report was reprinted in the Spectrum section of 'The Bangkok Post' later that week.
Monday's media release from the three rights bodies also said that television channel Al-Jazeera ''reported how migrants deported to Myanmar are being sent to camps controlled by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army where they must pay for their release before being smuggled or trafficked back to Thailand.''
It added: ''Rights groups have demanded investigations into these allegations since July 2010 but no response has been evident and the abuses continue.''
Mr Ban's visit is also expected to trigger a rally by hundreds of red shirt sympathisers who want an investigation into the Government's handling of the dispersal of the red shirt protests in April and May.
The UN secretary-general's Bangkok visit is part of a four-nation tour of Asia that includes Cambodia, Vietnam and China.
Latest Burmese caught working illegally in Phuket and along the Andaman coast are taken back to the border town of Ranong, where two Burmese say officials are involved in people trafficking.
Burmese Accuse Thai Officials of People Trafficking
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Well done yet again, Phukewan! Keep at it.
Posted by Treelover on October 25, 2010 13:18