PHUKET: BURMESE workers both legal and illegal on Phuket are to be offered an amnesty from arrest so they can all register with officials between June 15 and July 14.
Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha revealed the plan for the amnesty at a meeting with local authorities in Phuket City yesterday. A registration centre is to be set up at the Red Cross offices in Phuket City.
Governor Tri said all Phuket police had been told about the amnesty and were being asked not to arrest illegal workers until after the amnesty deadline passes.
Estimates of the number of illegal and legal Burmese workers on Phuket run as high as 200,000.
Many workers bring their families, so the uncounted extra population takes a toll particularly on Phuket's capacity to deal with health and education issues.
Public hospitals on Phuket have at times been forced to house patients in corridors and elevator foyers.
Burmese are better treated on Phuket than in the past, when curfews were imposed and they were unable to use motorcycles or mobile telephones. However, reports still surface of officials demanding bribes, even from Burmese with appropropriate paperwork.
A human trafficking trade thrives on the road from the Burma border port of Ranong because the demand for labor on Phuket vastly exceeds the number of workers officially sanctioned by authorities.
Once they have the equivalent of a Burmese worker ''passport,'' some Burmese have been able to take advantage of their improved official standing to move from construction to work in restaurants or resorts - or even to open retail outlets.
The move to count all Burmese on Phuket - illegal as well as legal - is seen as essential to government plans to improve the island's infrastructure.
First attempted in the province of Ranong, the ''Ranong model'' of registering all Burmese under an amnesty is considered to be the most effective method of guaging future needs.
In Ranong, signage is in three languages - Thai, Burmese and English - and the Burmese have established a series of schools that operate outside the Thai system but are regarded as particularly successful at teaching children English.
Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha revealed the plan for the amnesty at a meeting with local authorities in Phuket City yesterday. A registration centre is to be set up at the Red Cross offices in Phuket City.
Governor Tri said all Phuket police had been told about the amnesty and were being asked not to arrest illegal workers until after the amnesty deadline passes.
Estimates of the number of illegal and legal Burmese workers on Phuket run as high as 200,000.
Many workers bring their families, so the uncounted extra population takes a toll particularly on Phuket's capacity to deal with health and education issues.
Public hospitals on Phuket have at times been forced to house patients in corridors and elevator foyers.
Burmese are better treated on Phuket than in the past, when curfews were imposed and they were unable to use motorcycles or mobile telephones. However, reports still surface of officials demanding bribes, even from Burmese with appropropriate paperwork.
A human trafficking trade thrives on the road from the Burma border port of Ranong because the demand for labor on Phuket vastly exceeds the number of workers officially sanctioned by authorities.
Once they have the equivalent of a Burmese worker ''passport,'' some Burmese have been able to take advantage of their improved official standing to move from construction to work in restaurants or resorts - or even to open retail outlets.
The move to count all Burmese on Phuket - illegal as well as legal - is seen as essential to government plans to improve the island's infrastructure.
First attempted in the province of Ranong, the ''Ranong model'' of registering all Burmese under an amnesty is considered to be the most effective method of guaging future needs.
In Ranong, signage is in three languages - Thai, Burmese and English - and the Burmese have established a series of schools that operate outside the Thai system but are regarded as particularly successful at teaching children English.
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Ed, has the law that you referred to which prohibited Burmese on Phuket and several other Thai provinces from owning motorized means of transport and mobile phones, gathering in groups larger than 4, leaving their dwellings after 8pm without being accompanied by their Thai employer and being denied to stage any religious or cultural events been officially abolished ?
If so then it is indeed excellent news. That law (or perhaps it was just a local directive) was nothing short of modern day slavery.
Posted by Chris on May 31, 2011 13:51
Editor Comment:
Yes, Burmese can now even gain driving licences.